Aliens Mission to Hell
by Razial
Summary: Ripley thought the nightmare was over once she was rescued and brought back to civilization. However she now faces new struggles with the company and secrets pertaining to her daughter and finally she will be forced to confront her nightmare once more.
1. Chapter 1

Aliens: Mission to Hell

Summary: Ripley thought the nightmare was over once she was rescued and brought back to civilization. However she now faces new struggles with the company and secrets pertaining to her daughter and finally she will be forced to confront her nightmare once more.

Aliens: Mission to Hell  
By Razial

Disclaimer: I don't own the Alien franchise or anything from its connected media, they belong to whoever owns the rights whoever that maybe these days.

Pairings: Ripley/Hicks, Alexander/Kara, Hudson/Tessa

Notes: This is a very au version of Aliens with a few more marines added to Gorman's unit as I always thought their team was a little light, in regards to how many colonists were missing and the company's suspected plans for the capture of a Xenomorph. I'm also increasing the number of colonists that survived as the idea that Newt did on her own at her age was always a little hard to swallow. I'm also adding in the fact that the events from the game Alien: Isolation happened in cannon.

Summary: Ripley thought the nightmare was over once she was rescued and brought back to civilization. However she now faces new struggles with the company and secrets pertaining to her daughter and finally she will be forced to confront her nightmare once more.

Chapter 1

(USS Sulaco)

Ellen Ripley lay in her cryotube dreaming alongside a dozen other people, her dreams were far from restful and centered on events before coming aboard this ship. A choice she still wasn't sure was the correct one. Unable to help herself she found her thoughts focused on meeting her daughter's family and learning that she too had faced the same Alien she had. That in trying to find the truth about what happened to her Amanda had fallen into the same nightmare she herself had.

+AMTH+

(Gateway Station)

Ripley stared at the wall of her small apartment wondering not for the ninth time whether surviving the hellish ordeal had been worth it, her crew was dead. Plus there was the fact that Dallas had been more than just her captain he had been the father of her daughter, not that he had ever known that. They'd had a brief romance which had quickly petered out, but she'd become pregnant with her daughter Amanda and decided to keep it to herself, because she had known that Dallas had little interest in gaining a family. When Dallas had hired her onto the Nostromo a year or two after Amanda's birth, he had not even bothered to inquire as to whether the girl was his or not and thus that had sealed her choice. Also he had begun a relationship with Lambert, which was one of the reasons she and Lambert never saw eye to eye on things especially once things fell apart as the Xeno attacked and Dallas was killed.

She'd had ten years with her daughter, she'd loved her from the moment she was born and many a time had thought about quitting her job and getting a job earth side, but her love of space kept her from doing it every time. Now she deeply regretted not quitting as her daughter was now dead, two years before finally been found. She couldn't help but think that her daughter must had grown up hating her for breaking her promise to be back in time for her birthday. She prayed that her daughter had a happy life despite her disappearance. She knew thanks to Burke that she had married and had kids, but hewarned her away from trying to make contact till things settled down. Her review had not exactly gone her way and she was not in the Company's favor. Not that she cared one way or the other. The Company was the reason her crew was dead, they were the ones who ordered them to check out LV-426 and it was them who basically wrote them all off as expendable once they knew about the Alien they had found. They somehow ordered Ash to even kill them should they pose a threat to the Alien's life, which she would never forgive. None of them had known about Ash been an android. At least not that she knew although it was possible Kane and Dallas had known as they had been the captain and first officer of the Nostromo, but if they had they had not shared that knowledge with the rest of the crew.

Thinking about her review made her anger come back, those stupid idiots were as always more concerned about money and profit than they were about the lives of the people who work for them. She hated them, she cursed them and she hoped one day they would live to eat their stupidity somehow although she prayed it had nothing to do with that damn Alien. Although the nightmares from that whole thing continued to haunt her, she hoped that it was the last she would ever hear or see about it. Letting out a sigh she got up and prepared for bed, she wondered how the next year on Gateway would go for her. She had a simple job now, but she couldn't leave until her year of observation was over and the Company finally decided to discharge her. Laying down on her bunk after changing she closed her eyes and hoped for a dreamless sleep, but she knew better that she darkness would find her again.

+AMTH+

(Gateway Station, a few days later)

Ripley looked up as there was a knock on her door. She wasn't expecting any visitors not that she would be getting any except maybe Burke who had visited once or twice to check up on her on the Company's behalf she was certain no matter what he said otherwise. Opening the door she found someone she did not know, he was clearly not Company, nor was the woman with him but what really drew her attention was the slight resemblance the woman had to her last memory of Amanda. She felt a chill run down her spine as she stared into the woman's eyes, eyes that looked so very like her daughters and her own.

"Ellen Ripley?" the older man inquired.

"I'm yes," she managed to respond with a nod of her head.

"It is a great pleasure to finally meet you. I'm not sure how much you've found about Amanda's life, but I was her husband," the man informed her with a gentle smile. "My name is John McClaren and this is mine and Amanda's daughter Jennifer, your granddaughter," he introduced himself and the woman confirming what Ripley had already suspected.

Ripley backed away from the door and allowed them to enter before closing it and heading for her couch, sitting down she wondered how they had tracked her down and more importantly how they had known she had been found in the first place especially as Burke had insisted that she would not contact them for a while.

"How did you find out I was back?" she managed to inquire. "The Company rep suggested it was better that my return was kept quiet and that I will not contact you for a while since I was found guilty during my review," she explained.

"Amanda made a lot of friends during her life, especially after she discovered the truth about your disappearance," John answered much to Ripley's confusion.

"I don't understand?" Ripley said feeling a sick feeling well up in her for reasons beyond her because it was impossible that Amanda could have found out the real truth about why she never came home.

"I can understand that, no doubt the Company would not wish you to know the truth about Amanda's own dealings with them and especially not with the Alien organism she and you both encountered," John responded with a nod of understanding.

Ripley felt the blood drain out of her face at John's words, it couldn't be. Her baby couldn't have somehow faced the same evil. 'How?' she wondered as she rubbed her head and quickly got up and headed to her fridge and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured three glasses before handing them out. She took a deep gulp from her own; somehow she knew she would need it.

"How? The Company would never have told her the truth," Ripley demanded to know.

"No, they wouldn't, but while we were dating, she was constantly looking for you or whatever happened to you and your ship," John answered. "She was working as a welder when she was approached by someone in the Company who told her the flight recorder of the Nostromo had been found. He offered a place for her on the crew been sent to recover it from the station holding it," he explained. "She agreed. The day we said goodbye before she departed I made her understand I knew she had to do this or she would never forgive herself," he continued. "I would wait for her return for five months. When she did finally return she was not the same woman who had left, but she told me she now knew the truth about what happened to you and that unlike she had previously believed as a child you had not abandoned her," he went on, pausing only to take a gulp from his glass while Ripley digested what he had told her. "She was scarred and had constantly nightmares for months even a year afterwards, Weyland-Yutani never left her alone and constantly hounded her for some time afterwards," he said.

"Why?" Ripley demanded to know.

"Because she would not tell them what she had found out about the Aliens and especially not what had taken place on Sevastopol station. She did however find the flight recorder on the ship that first discovered it after dealing with some problems. She found the message you left for her on the recorder as well as your final report," John informed her. "Her fight against the Alien changed her. She became harder and somewhat cynical, but she felt more at peace with the fact that you were out there somewhere, that it was possible you may yet still be found and she kept that hope right up to her death," he assured her while Ripley did her best not to cry at finally accepting her daughter had indeed faced the same nightmare that she herself had. "She hid everything she wrote about it in the hopes you would eventually be found, as I said she made many friends even within the Company who like you and her had fallen afoul of their politics and money grabbing and thus one of them called me to inform me you had been found and where you were," he told her as he finished his drink. "Travelling under false documentation we got here as soon as we could. I made one final promise to Amanda and that was to deliver this case with her diaries. She wrote them for you and you only, so you'd know what she went through and her understanding of why you broke your promise to come home," he finished as he handed the case over.

"Thank you," Ripley managed to say as she ran her hand over the case wondering just how bad her daughter's nightmare had been. "What should I do with them once I've read them?" she inquired.

"That is of course up to you Ellen, but if it were me I would destroy them so that Weyland-Yutani doesn't get their hands on them. Amanda went to a lot of trouble to keep them away from the Company," John stated.

Jennifer who had stayed quiet through the entire conversation finally spoke up. "I would destroy them to. Mom was worried that they would use her diaries to find some way to the relict and the eggs it contained," showing that she too knew the entire story which was why she had not seemed doubtful once her father started talking.

"We know they formed a colony on the planet LV-426, but we also know for certain they have not found the ship as they did not know about it or if they did they didn't know its location," John added.

Ripley suddenly felt her stomach drop as she realized her review inquiry may have given them clues as to the ships location, she cursed herself and prayed she was wrong. John and Jennifer stood and Ripley quickly followed, it was clear they intended to leave.

"We would love to stay and get to know one another, I know Jennifer would especially like that, but we can't," John explained before Ripley could say anything. "If the Company knew we were here they could arrest us and you. They would find the diaries and then they may open the Pandora's Box you and Amanda have sacrificed so much to keep closed," he added with a smile. "But we will keep in touch and hopefully once you've been released from Gateway you can visit us on Earth," he offered before he guided Jennifer towards the door.

"Thank you for coming and telling me about this," Ripley said. "I hope we will meet again. If not I'm glad to know Amanda had at least a good a life and to have had a family who clearly loved her and she loved in return," she continued.

Jennifer smiled and nodded before stepping forward and enclosing Ripley in a hug much to Ripley's surprise. "Goodbye Grandma, hope to see you soon," Jennifer said before she followed her father out of the apartment, leaving Ripley to collapse against the door and finally begin to weep for the loss of her daughter and the life she would never have.

It took her sometime to get herself back together and move back to the case and open it to find several diaries within it, each had a number on it. Opening the first she began to read, her hand absently trailing over her daughter's neat handwriting

+AMTH+

(USS Sulaco)

Ripley shifted in her cryotube as the dream faded and her mind wandered around. No one really knew how one could dream during cryosleep, but Ripley still recalled some of the nightmares she had suffered during her long journey back to civilization although she shouldn't. Her mind soon drifted to the memory of been recruited for this mission, a mission to once again face the nightmare that had destroyed her life.

+AMTH+

(Gateway Station)

It had been a few months since her visit from her son in law and granddaughter and Ripley had finally finished going through the diaries of her daughter. She was truly horrified to learn of just how close her Amanda had come to dying. She had faced not only the same threat of the Alien that had decimated the crew of the Nostromo, but had also found herself facing more than one of them and somehow escaped. Her daughter had proven more than up to the challenge and survived. She felt great pride in Amanda's success against the Alien, but also sorrow that she ever had to face the same nightmare. As advised by John and Jennifer she had burnt the diaries once she had finished reading them. There was no way in hell she was risking Weyland-Yutani getting their hands on them.

The company could track the location of the derelict from them, that would be a disaster waiting to happen and she wouldn't risk it. Her daughter had clearly sacrificed a lot to keep everything hidden from the damn Company. She just hoped she hadn't let anything slip during her review by the board.

A sudden knock on her door startled her and she quickly moved to it and opened it. She almost let out a groan of annoyance at seeing Burke, but her attention was suddenly focused on the man next to him who was clearly military.

"Hey Ripley, how're you doing?" Burke said in greeting before swiftly moving on clearly in a rush. "I'd like to introduce" was as far as he got before Ripley slammed the door in his face.

Burke exchanged a short look with the man next to him having expected Ripley to be less than welcoming. Her feelings towards the Company were no secret and he knew been robbed of her flight status and rank had to have helped make that anger and maybe hatred worse. Still he had a job to do here and he desperately needed her cooperation, hence he took a deep breath and knocked again. As there came no response he decided to shout as best he could through the door. "Ripley we need to talk please it is really important. We've lost contact with the colony on LV-426," he explained and he was unsurprised as the door immediately opened and Ripley stared at him with a focused and dark expression before allowing him and his companion to enter. "This is Lieutenant Gorman of the Colonial Marines," he said finishing his original greeting and introduction. "We have an unknown situation and they may be needed. The colony has been dark now for three weeks past their last scheduled check in and that has many people worried," he explained as Ripley poured them all some coffee and handed them out.

"So why come to me Burke? Why do I need to know about this?" Ripley inquired as she sat and drunk her coffee ignoring the slight burning it caused as it went down. "As far as I can tell I'm not exactly on the Company's go to list," she spat sarcastically.

Burke smiled, not taking any offence at her sarcastic comment. He knew she had every right to be sarcastic, but he needed her for this mission especially since everything that he feared had happened to Hadley's Hope was on his head. Right after the review hearing concerning Ripley he had ordered an expedition to be sent from the Colony to the coordinates contained in the data log of the escape shuttle she had been aboard. Within several days of his transmission the colony had gone dark and no further communication had come and he now had a disaster to cover up before it blew up in his face. To do so he had played dumb as to why the colony had gone dark. He had also wiped all traces of his transmission to Hadley's hope from the mainframe thus nothing could be traced to him from this end. However the problem was any search team sent could find traces of his transmission in the colony mainframe, hence he had volunteered to be the company representative for the search and rescue mission and thankfully there had been no argument. Now he just had to convince Ripley to join them. He would need her knowledge of the creatures just in case it turned out they were behind the colony going dark. Also he decided she may prove useful in gaining a specimen he could bring back for the bio labs to study. He was certain he could manipulate her hatred of the things to help him as a way of finding a way to kill them more effectively.

"You're right Ripley, you don't have great standing with the board but they are hedging their bets that this may be more than a downed transmitter which was the original idea behind the blackout with the colony," Burke finally spoke before taking a quick sip from his cup of coffee. "It was me who raised the possibility that this might be more than that, that perhaps they were wrong to ignore your warnings so quickly," he explained doing his best to paint himself in a good light as an ally. "I suggested that the outcry that may come should it be found out that the Alien species you described in your report was responsible for an entire colony's death and that they did nothing would have serious repercussions for the board as a whole," he continued. "I also suggested it might damage the Company's image and profit to such an extent that it could open up a shot at a corporate takeover from one of our few rivals. That shock them up and made them agree to bring you on as an adviser," he finished with a pleased smile as everything he had said was true.

He had easily manipulated the board's fears as he knew very much what was important to them and what it was they feared the most. He had spent his early career studying the board members and their reactions to events around them. He had done his best to get close to some of them or at least those in positions to know the board members well. He had learned a lot in that time hence when it came time to put it to use it did not fail him.

"An adviser?" Ripley asked in surprise as she finished her coffee and stood up in slight agitation.

"If this is a downed transmission then no muss no foul, but if this is something more and if it does have something to do with your Alien menace I want you there to advise the marines we are sending in," Burke explained. "They are highly trained to combat many situations. Am I not correct Lieutenant?" he asked turning to Gorman who was finishing off his own coffee having stayed quiet up till now.

"That's correct. My men are highly trained to face many situations, but it is always nice to have someone who might have some information we can use in the case of meeting something new," Gorman responded confidently, even though he failed to point out he had not commanded his new company for more than a month or two or that his own experience in actual combat was limited to one combat drop a few years before.

He did question internally why he was put in charge of this mission. There were plenty of more qualified commanders, but he had decided not to question it and instead use it to try and prop up his own career which had faltered since making the rank of Lieutenant. "I have been briefed on your report by Mr Burke and I can say no one in the marine core or anywhere else has reported anything like your Alien before," he stated.

"Good I would hope not Mr Gorman, these things are out of your worst nightmares," Ripley shot back bitterly. "And what makes you think Burke I would ever agree to go on your mission after what the board did to me?" she asked turning back to Burke.

"Because if you agree to help us Ripley I can guarantee you will get your rank and flight status restored plus all pay you are still owed by the Company for the Nostromo's last flight," Burke responded. "And believe me getting that barging out of the board was not easy, but I insisted considering your record before the final flight of the Nostromo was spotless and you could have easily made Captain had the Nostromo not been destroyed said it all about your skill and competence," he added quickly. "You would be an asset on this mission and this mission will be search and rescue, there is an entire colony to be found Ripley. Entire families could be at risk, we need you just in case this is more than it seems," he stated as seriously as he could.

Ripley stared at them both as she considered everything she had heard. A part of her wanted to show them out the door with a good kick in the ass, but another part of her wanted to help. The idea of whole families been at risk from these Aliens made her shiver in horror, but the question in her mind was could she confront this nightmare again. "Let me think about it Burke. I can't make this decision on the fly," she requested after taking a deep breath.

"We are leaving in two days Ripley, so I need an answer by tomorrow night at the least," Burke said with what he hoped was a warm and friendly smile. "Take your time, here's my card and don't worry about waking me if you call late. This mission is as high profile as we get and everyone's ass is one the line," he told her.

"Thank you for the coffee Miss," Gorman said as he handed back his cup and headed towards the door still unable to get a read on how Ripley would work within a military unit, something he had been working on since the door opened.

Ripley watched them leave before resting her head against the door and letting out a sigh as she contemplated what to do. Lives were on the line and it was true that she could help, especially in making sure these marines that were sent did not take this mission too lightly. "Shit," she muttered as she tried to weigh what was the correct call. She looked to where Jones, her cat, the only other survivor of the Nostromo was curled up on her couch. The cat yawned and looked back at her as if sensing her attention and wondered what it would say if it could talk. Putting her mind onto other things she moved to get ready for work and decide to think about it later. Jones watched as she moved about before going back to sleep.

The End?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night Ripley awoke from another nightmare and quickly moved into a seated position, wiping the sweat from her brow she took a few deep breaths before relaxing a bit. Glancing at the side table where Burke's card lay, she grabbed it and scanned it into the mainframe communication port. She only waited a few seconds before Burke appeared on the small screen looking like he had been awoken from a deep sleep, but he quickly seemed to wake up when he recognized who it was on the line.

"Ripley, are you okay?" he inquired as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"Just promise me one thing Burke. That if we do find out it is the Aliens behind the colony going dark that we will wipe them out completely and that you have no interest in bringing any of them back for study," she demanded without any hesitation.

"You have my word Ripley, the stakes are too high to do anything else," Burke assured her, even though he was lying through his teeth as his plans did indeed include capturing a specimen for study, but he now knew he would have to be more careful in how he tried to manipulate Ripley. Clearly her hatred for these creatures went beyond the pale and that did not bode well.

"Ok I'm in, just tell me where to meet you," Ripley said after a few seconds of studying Burke's features to look for any signs of deceit but seeing none.

"Meet me at bay 19 at ten o'clock the day after tomorrow. We board the Sulaco from there," Burke informed her to which she nodded before cutting the connection before he could say anything else.

She looked to where Jones lay on her bed watching her. She smiled as she reached out and ran a hand over his head making the animal purr. "As for you my friend you are staying here you little shit head," she smirked. She would get Jennifer and John to take care of Jones until she hopefully returned. She grabbed the card they had sent her which would connect them through a secure channel so they could speak.

It was Jennifer who answered the call looking very much half awake, but she quickly woke up when she saw Ripley's face. "Is there something wrong Grandma?" she inquired in a gentle voice.

"I need you to come to Gateway tomorrow to pick up Jones. I've been recruited for a mission to LV-426 as the colony has gone dark and entire families may be at risks from the Aliens," Ripley responded as calmly as she could and was not surprised to see the look of horror that crossed Jennifer's face at this news. "This may be my only chance to prove the truth and shove it in the Company's face. The military is involved this time and that may prove handy in getting the truth out," she explained. "What I went through, what Amanda went through may finally have a purpose if we can make the military realize that Weyland-Yutani had been keeping a lid on the existence of such a lethal creature," she added.

"Can you trust the military any more than the company?" Jennifer inquired in clear concern.

"I think so. Their job is to protect the people not just the company's profit margin. I think if I can prove somehow that the company had a hand in the colony going dark it could be a real blow for the company," Ripley said as confidently as she could.

"I don't like this Grandma, but if the lives of the colonists are on the line then you have to help, because I know for sure mom would go if she was in your place," Jennifer finally said. "We'll be by tomorrow to get Jones, to be honest I always wanted a pet," she added with a smile.

"Thanks Jennifer. I'm sorry for waking you up so late," Ripley responded, feeling somewhat relieved that Jones would remain within the family and that at least this way he would remain safe even though she would miss him as he had been a constant companion since getting him as a kitten. "See you tomorrow, good night," she said before signing off.

"Guess I've gone and done it now," she muttered to herself and Jones who had crawled into her lap and curled up against her as she lay back down. "Don't worry Jonesy, I'll be back," she said absently to reassure her pet who let out a purr before falling back asleep with Ripley following soon after.

+AMTH+

The next day Jennifer and John arrived early and in much the same fashion as before, clearly they did not want to draw any attention to themselves. "Hi Grandma," Jennifer greeted her before hugging her after closing the door.

"Hey Jennifer," Ripley said in response. "John, thanks for coming," she added as she shook her son in laws hand.

"No problem, once Jennifer explained, there was no way I wasn't going to come as well," John assured her. "I'm as concerned by this development as you are. Amanda always worried that the colony on LV-426 would become endangered, but no matter what she tried the Company would hear none of her arguments," he explained. "And no one would listen to her warnings without solid proof, but that would require giving them the location of the derelict and that was not something she wanted to risk getting out," he added.

"I understand believe me I do, but this is my only chance to not only to make the Company pay for Dallas and the other's deaths, but maybe that of an entire colony in their search for better weapons and more money," Ripley stated in response. "I'm at least hoping not all of the colonists are dead, which is another reason I agreed to go, lives are at stake and I wouldn't be able to live with it if I left them to die by those creature's hands," she stressed with a sigh.

"We understand Grandma," Jennifer told her as she gently picked up Jones who had been watching them from the couch and began to stroke him, quickly making the cat settle down and begin to purr. "As I said last night, mom would do the same thing," she assured her.

"Jennifer is correct, Amanda would go no matter the danger if lives were at stake," John agreed with a prideful look in his eyes. "As I'm sure you've read she become quiet devoted to helping people after her encounters with the Alien," he mused with a smile to which Ripley nodded.

"I hope to be back within three months to pick up Jones, but if I don't come back please keep him, he's part of the family," Ripley finally requested.

"Don't worry. We won't sell him or give him up like I said I always wanted a pet and I remember mom telling me stories about playing with Jones when she was a child," Jennifer assured her with a calming smile. "That he survived the Nostromo with you is amazing, who would think such a little animal could survive contact with the deadliest creatures in the galaxy?" she mused before putting Jones inside the animal carryall Ripley had kept even after being found by the rescue team.  
"We should leave just in case your Company friend pays you a visit to discuss the mission. It wouldn't do any good for him to discover we are in contact as I've said before," John suggested to which Ripley nodded in agreement.

"Thank you for reaching out to me and thanks for agreeing to take care of Jones," Ripley said as she surprised John by briefly hugging him and then turning to hug Jennifer for a bit longer before she watched them leave with Jones.

Once they were gone she collapsed on the couch and cried feeling greatly upset now that she no longer had Jones with her. He had been a constant companion and helper and now he was gone even if it was for his own safety.

+AMTH+

(USS Sulaco)

Ripley's first conscious thoughts as she awoke from her cryosleep was the relief that this time there had been no nightmares, just memories of how she had ended up on this warship heading back to LV-426. Letting out a few coughs she slowly sat up and rubbed her back before her attention was drawn to the marine on the side she was facing. He seemed handsome enough and very much unlike what she expected a marine to look like.

"Yo, Hicks man you look just like I feel man," a voice made her turn to see the man in the tube on the other side of her and he actually met the look of what she expected a marine to look like, rugged and scarred with a darkish look in his eyes as he glanced across her to where she guessed Hicks sat in his tube.

"Thanks Drake I feel so much better on hearing that," Hicks shot back with a groan as he pushed himself to his feet and tried to ignore the presence of the woman laying between him and Drake.

"Well move it people, what are you all waiting for? Breakfast in bed with a newspaper?" a rough loud voice echoed through the cryotube bay, making Ripley look up to see a dark skinned man walk up and down the bay with a cigar in his mouth. He looked tough and competent and something about him made Ripley trust him on sight. He was clearly a no nonsense by the book solider and she doubted he would bend for money. "This is another beautiful day in the core, another day to prove you are the best of the best," he shouted with a smirk.

"My god this floor is god damn freezing," another of the marines suddenly shouted as he stood up quickly gaining Ripley's attention.

"What do you expect Hudson, what do you want me to do get you a pair of slippers?" the tough looking man inquired after blowing out a load of smoke.

"Gee would you? I'd like that Sarge," Hudson shot back easily with a cheeky look making Apone snort.

"Yeah I bet you would like that Private, now get moving," Apone responded as he turned and walked away, still blowing smoke from his cigar as he watched the rest of his team finally getting up and moving to the locker room to get changed.

A meal was of course the next course of action after such a long period in cryosleep and everyone quickly grabbed some food and began eating. The marines easily fell into an easy going back and forth as they ate. Ripley sat next to Burke and Gorman at the small table at the front of the dining room, she didn't feel at ease sitting next to the marines as she did not know any of them as she'd had little time to even look around the Sulaco since meeting Burke and boarding the ship at bay 19 before being asked to get into the cryotube. It was here that the first warning signs hit, after a rather interesting ruckus from the marines that included Bishop and a knife, he joined them and offered some of the food from his plate which Burke easily accepted.

"I thought you never miss, Bishop?" Burke murmured as he noted the android was bleeding the synthetic white blood from a small wound in its thumb. Ripley felt her insides freeze as she once again saw the white blood that had come spurting out of Ash as he tried to murder her. She remembered as Parker smashed a fire extinguisher against his head making the white blood pour out of him and onto her.

"You god damn asshole Burke, why the fuck didn't you tell me about an android being on board?" she demanded in the harshest tone she could manage, making nearly everyone turn to look at the new commotion.

Bishop raised an eyebrow in surprise at Ripley's rather violent reaction to his being an android. He had known there were some people who were still wary of his kind, but he'd never encountered one before. But there was something deeper here he suspected. The raw hatred he detected in her voice told him that. Burke he noted had gone slightly pale, but was quickly recovering. He wondered what was behind Ripley's raw hatred.

"It is standard policy to have an android on board Ripley. Unlike humans they do not need to go into cryosleep, hence they are the perfect pilots," Burke quickly explained before he suddenly realized why Ripley was alarmed. The sections of her report concerning the android Ash quickly smacked him in the face and he almost wanted to hit himself in the face.

"I prefer the term artificial person myself Mr. Burke," Bishop interjected with a smile hoping to defuse the situation with a little humor. "Is there something wrong, something I can do to help?" he inquired. "Clearly you are not fond of my kind, although I can think of no reason why that would be so," he mused aloud.

"On Ripley's last trip out, the artificial person malfunctioned and it ended up causing some deaths among the crew," Burke finally responded as he again kicked himself for forgetting this important detail. "I'm sorry Ripley I forgot that detail in my rush to get this mission underway," he said in what he hoped sounded like remorse.

"I'm shocked. Was it an older model?" Bishop inquired truly surprised by this piece of information, he had never heard of such a thing, at least not in the last twenty years since the creation of the behavior chips implanted into each android.

"Yes it was an old Hyperdine Systems 120-A/2, this happened some fifty seven years ago," Burke answered. "Ripley is the victim of a very long cryosleep," he added.

"Well that explains a lot, the old Hyperdine systems were always a bit twitchy, especially if they did not receive constant checks on their systems," Bishop explained as he now understood the reasons behind Ripley's hatred and perhaps fear of him. It was logical that she fear him if she had lost friends and colleagues due to a malfunction in one of his kind's systems leading to their deaths. He felt sorrow at this as he realized that until he could earn some trust from the woman still glaring at him he would get little co-operation from her, even if needed. "That can never happen these days since the creation of the behavior chips and them being implanted in every new model that has come out. It is impossible for me to harm or even be ordered to harm a human being," he informed her.

"Just stay away from me Bishop. I don't care what new chip they designed for you," Ripley bit out. "Ash didn't malfunction, he was ordered to kill me and my crew in order to preserve the existence of the Alien and don't tell me otherwise Burke, I remember what that bastard told me and what I found in MOTHER'S com log," she spat as she turned to glare at Burke. "The company ordered him to do what he did, so stay away," she warned before she got up and stormed away.

"Is that even possible?" Gorman asked in shock after hearing what Ripley had to say.

"I'm sure she is remembering things wrongly Lieutenant. There is no way the company would do such a thing," Burke lied as best he could and cursing Ripley for actually daring to say such a thing, even if it was true, in such company. "The stresses of those events have clearly had an effect on her memories, the doctors said as much when the board questioned them," he continued to lie.

"I suggest Bishop you give her some space. She does not strike me as an easy going person," Gorman suggested as he finished his meal before leaving.

Bishop just nodded in agreement, but he was already calculating just what the truth was. Mr. Burke clearly dismissed Ripley's outburst as stress induced errors in her memories and while it was true an extended cryosleep could have affected her, she didn't strike him as someone unbalanced. No she seemed very much in control of herself; hence her claims may have some truth to them not that he could do anything about them. He doubted with the chips implanted in them that any such orders to do such harm could ever happen again, but he doubted Ripley would take his word for it. He would just have to wait and hope he could prove his good intentions.

Hicks and his fellow marines had watched the whole confrontation with some interest and it was clear there was more going on with their new addition than they knew. She clearly did not like androids and if her accusations were true then she had a god damn good reason for it. Hicks and some of his fellow marines were not blind to the blind greed routed within Weyland-Yutani and that its members were prone to doing what they could to get one up on each other through whatever means necessary. Hell a lot of his fellow marines in the Corps itself hated the company outright having had family members who had been screwed by the choices of those very people the company seemed to love to employ. He wouldn't put it past the company to try and kill some of its employees if it suited their purposes. He wondered about Ripley's comment about an Alien and suddenly he had a very bad feeling about this mission.

The End?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

An hour later the entire squad filled into the loading bay for the mission briefing. Gorman, Bishop, Ripley and Burke watched as the men and women took back seats or stood in very relaxed postures. This bugged Ripley as they had no idea as to the danger they were about to encounter. She had little hope they would take her report any more seriously than the Board had done. She hoped they would or there was little chance any of them would survive first contact with the Aliens. Her crew had been decimated by just one of these things. Kane and Brett had died before they even knew they were in real danger. Dallas, Parker and Lambert had perished fighting it while Ash had forced them to kill him when he tried to murder them to ensure the Alien lived.

"Ok Sergeant, call the roster. Let's make sure everyone is here," Gorman ordered breaking Ripley's thoughts.

"Yes sir," Apone nodded having gotten used to the fact their new CO liked to do the roster before any briefing since taking over the company a month before. This would be their first combat deployment under Gorman's leadership and he hoped the man knew how to effectively command during combat or this drop would go to shit. "Hicks, Hudson, Drake, Vasquez, Frost, Crowe, Wierzbowski, Dietrich, Spunkmeyer, Ferro, Marks, Jackson, Shepard, Cameron, Evans."

Every time Apone called a name there was an instant response from one of the Marines allowing Ripley to finally learn the names and faces of her new comrades. She noted the squad contained five women in total and ten men, but the squad looked tough enough. She prayed they would prove tough enough for what was to come.

"Everyone is accounted for Sir," Apone reported with a quick salute which Gorman returned before removing his cap and stepping forward to face his men.

"I'm sorry we had no time to brief you before we left Gateway, but this mission is top priority and both the Corps and the Company want answers as to why Hadley's Hope has gone dark and has been for three weeks," Gorman stated. "Some believe it is only a downed transmitter, if so it is easily fixed and we come home to some early leave," he added which quickly caused the Marines to yell in surprise. "However things may be a little harder than just a downed transmitter, there is the possibility of a Xenomorph being involved," he explained.

"A what sir?" Wierzbowski inquired with clear confusion in his tone which was matched by the looks on some of the others faces.

"A Xenomorph, another kind of life beyond human," Bishop was the one who answered.

"It's a bug hunt," Hicks said as he blew smoke from his cigarette after taking a large intake. "Should have known.

"It's not a bug hunt, because that implies there is nothing more dangerous than a simple animal as the cause," Ripley cut in stepping forward. "This is no simple animal soldier, this is the ultimate nightmare," she stated coldly.

"This is Ellen Ripley our civilian adviser and expert on just what we might encounter once we hit the colony," Gorman said introducing her to the company. "Please continue," he said to Ripley before stepping back.

"I'll tell you what I know, fifty seven years ago I was part of the crew of the hauler Nostromo and we were on our way home when our ship intercepted a beacon that triggered an instant awakening of our crew from cryosleep," Ripley started as calmly as she could. "Only one of us knew the real reason for being woken up to check out this signal, our android, even though as far as I know none of us knew he was an android until he tried to murder those of us left on Company orders to preserve the life of the Alien we had unwittingly brought aboard," she continued before Burke interrupted her.

"There is no proof of any of that Ripley and I take offence to you trying to make the Company look like murderers. Your android simply malfunctioned and due to the trauma you experienced in your fight you just remember things wrong," Burke insisted and tried to ignore the burning look of anger Ripley shot him at his words.

"Somehow I doubt it," Ripley shot back before turning back to the squad. "We were ordered to set down on LV-426 to check out the signal's source. What we found was a derelict spacecraft that contained thousands of eggs within some kind of stasis," she paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "Kane, our first officer, went into the egg chamber and somehow woke up one of the eggs which opened and allowed what could only be called some kind of face hugging parasite to latch itself into his helmet. Acid, it produced, burnt right through and allowed it to encircle his head. He was brought back by myself and Captain Dallas, for a time he lay in medical as any attempt to remove the thing caused it to bleed acid which burnt through three decks before stopping," she went on. "A day or two later the thing seemed to die by itself and fell off. Kane seemed fine and we decided to have one more meal before going back into cryosleep," she trailed off as the horror of that memory came back to her. "Somehow it implanted some kind of embryo inside Kane, he became sick and started to convulse," her voice broke as the memory became more and more vivid.

"Hey I only need to know one thing and that is where they are," Vasquez boasted confidently instantly breaking through Ripley's broken memories of that horrible event. She stepped right up to the hard faced woman and locked eyes with her unafraid, much too many of the other Marines surprise.

"I hope you're right about that, I truly do or you'll end up just as dead as my crew or worse," Ripley spat in a cold decisive tone.

"Thank you Ripley, I think we can leave it there," Gorman tried to intercede as he sensed this could get ugly real fast. "We have her report on disk so I suggest your all study it, our lives and the lives of any surviving colonists should a problem exists may depend on how well you remember what Ripley has put into that report," he ordered as he looked around at his people.

"Just one of those damn Aliens managed to wipe out my entire crew in less than forty eight hours. It was fast, it was intelligent and it was deadly and if the colonists have found that damn ship there is no telling how many may already be dead and worse how many may now be nothing but hosts for those creatures," Ripley spat out, locking eyes with each of the Marines as she did so trying to make them feel her horror. "Do you understand me yet?" she asked once more locking eyes with Vasquez who could only stare back in shock.

Vasquez stared into eyes that looked hard as steel and that was impressive, usually most people backed down from her, even fellow Marines. But this civvy was standing her ground and glaring at her, while it was clear her memories troubled and even haunted her, but that didn't stop her from having a core of steel when needed.

"Yeah chica I got you," she finally said and Ripley nodded.

"Good because if you want to survive and not become a host for one of these things I suggest you pay close attention to the record of my report. It might just save your life," Ripley finished before she turned and walked away.

"Anyway we have it on record so I suggest you all study it closely before we deploy to the planet," Gorman said in surprise at what had just gone down. He would have to revaluate Ripley because clearly she could be dangerous when necessary. "Now are there any questions?" he inquired.

"Yeah, how the fuck do I get out of this chicken shit outfit?" Hudson inquired sarcastically.

"You secure that shit Hudson or I will personally kick your ass all over this ship until you remember your manners," Apone warned and no one was surprised when Hudson quickly shut up and settled back down. '

"Ok people listen to me. I want this operation to go smoothly and by the numbers. I want full DCS and tactical data-base assimilation by oh-eight-thirty." A few groans rose from the group, but nothing in the way of a strong protest. It was no less than what they expected. "Ordnance loading, weapons strip and checkout, and dropship prep will have seven hours. I want everything and everybody ready to go on time. Let's hit it," Gorman ordered before he turned and left.

The Marines quickly dispersed to begin their preparations for the mission ahead. They also knew they would need to make some time to listen and study the recorded report of Ripley so they knew what to expect should they encounter anything nasty. Bishop headed for the APC to ensure it was in working order. Burke scratched his head unsure what to do before deciding to just find somewhere to sit down and try and plan how to ensure he came out ahead in all this.

+AMTH+

(USS Sulaco, five hours later)

Hicks listened to the recording for the second time, still finding it hard not to hear the agony of what Ripley had clearly gone through. She was clearly not faking that she was somewhat traumatized by the events that had transpired on the Nostromo, but it had not broken her and she was willing to face it again should these creatures be the cause of Hadley's Hope going dark. He wondered why it was only now that the colony was at risk from these things, considering the supposed derelict Alien ship had been on the planet even longer than the Nostromo's visit fifty seven years earlier. He wondered who had crewed the ship? According to the report the remains of a rather large Alien had been discovered in what seemed to be the pilot's chair. It clearly died from the same creatures it was transporting. Rubbing his chin he wondered just how well their weapons would work on these things should they be down there. Getting close to them was out of the question due to their acid like blood that would kill them should they get it on them. No the success of this mission would depend on them keeping the things at long range, considering the speed implied by the report that would be difficult.

"Yo Hicks. How's it going?" Hudson inquired as he entered the bunk room and sat down pulling the recorder off his bunk where one had been left on each for them to listen to.

"Let's just say this, my friend. If these things are down there and have overrun the colony we are in for a very dark time," Hicks responded as he removed his headphones and shut of his recorder as he knew his break time was over.

Hudson paused and glanced at Hicks knowing the man was not prone to making idle comments, thus if he said it was going to be bad then you could count on it to be bad. "That bad huh?" he asked.

"Bad enough, I think I agree with Ripley, these things seem like something out of a nightmare," Hicks responded as he got up and headed back out to finish prep work. "I don't like it, and her accusations against the Company during her last time out make me very edgy," he admitted.

"Yeah, it sounds shifty doesn't it? Even though that jerk Burke insists she's just confused due to her long cryosleep," Hudson agreed with a snort. "My sister fell afoul of the Company's shit a couple of years ago. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them," he said. "I wouldn't trust that Burke if he was the last guy alive," he added to which Hicks nodded.

"Yeah me neither, but we have to play nice as he is the Company rep for this mission and so far he's done nothing for us to be wary of. Except maybe piss Ripley off for dismissing her concerns about the Company," Hicks said with a chuckle. "My gut says we can trust Ripley," he said before he left Hudson to go over the briefing.

Hudson considered his friend's last statement and had to agree. Ripley seemed like a straight forward person and committed to the task at hand with no secret agenda that he could see at the least. Putting his headphones on he pressed play and sat back on his bunk to listen to the report Ripley had made. At least now he could relax after the shit load of work he had done prepping for this mission.

Hicks found Apone going over a check list and nodded in greeting and taking no offence when he got nothing back. Apone was focused on his task and nothing would break his concentration. He was almost surprised to find Ripley suddenly by their side looking somewhat bored if he was right. He glanced at Apone and noted that he too had finally noted their guest.

"Hey, I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help out?" Ripley inquired, having finally got fed up of sitting on her bunk or wandering the rather large Starship.

Hicks and Apone exchanged surprised expressions having suspected her to sit out any hard work much like Burke and Gorman, clearly they had been wrong. "I don't know, is there any way you can help?" Apone inquired.

"I do happen to have a class two dock rating hence I can drive one of those loaders," Ripley shot back. It was the only work she had been able to get since her review hearing.

"Then please be my guest, we still have a few heavy items to load and while my people know how to work those things they are marines first, not dock workers," Apone finally replied with a grin.

Ripley needed no further encouragement and moved straight for the loader and quickly got in and powered it up within a few minutes, this surprised Hicks and Apone who knew it took the team more than that to get comfortable in the loaders. Ripley seemed to meld to the damn thing. They watched as she powered the loader over to one of the big crates still waiting, moving the huge arms of the loader she quickly clamped down on the crate and picked it up. "So where do you want this thing?" Ripley asked somewhat smugly.

Hicks grinned in surprise while Apone let out an approving chuckle. "Bay 2 please," Apone said as he watched the large loader move easily out of the bay. "Impressive," he mused.

"Guess she isn't one for standing around," Hicks commented before moving to get back to work.

Apone just nodded in agreement before moving to go check on the dropshipload up and prep, once the bird was ready he could order his people to arm up and get ready for dropping. At least Ripley seemed to be a useful civilian beyond her knowledge of what they were facing. She didn't seem to mind getting her hands dirty unlike Burke and even Gorman wasn't doing much to help in preparing for the drop.

+AMTH+

(USS Sulaco)

Ripley watched as the troops lined up one after another with their armor and weapons on, now they looked fully like marines and ready for war. They would need to be ready, they were about to step into a real nightmare if those damn aliens were running loose down on that colony. Gorman and Apone walked up and down the line inspecting the troops and seemed to find them ready. A noise gained Ripley's attention and she watched as a large APC drove up close to the dropship.

"Ok… get in there, you know where your seats are," Apone commanded as he pulled open the door to reveal the insides of the APC. "Move it," he added to speed things up. Ripley and Burke were the last two inside and they quickly made their way to the two empty seats. Once seated Ripley looked around as she felt the APC move into the dropship.

"Now we just wait for the big drop," John Shepard said with a big grin.

"Yeah express elevator to hell going down," Hudson shouted with a loud whoop of joy as the entire ship seemed to lurch before falling at a breakneck speed towards the planet.

Ripley held on to the cross bars across her seat as the dropship rocketed towards the planet. She felt her stomach roll in protest as the drop was finally pulled into some kind of controlled descent. She noted quite a few of the marines were still crowing in delight, but she noted strangely that Hicks seemed to have fallen asleep much to her sudden amusement. 'How the hell did he manage to fall asleep during such a drop?' she wondered. Of course her mind suddenly decided to remind her that she was about to descend back to the place where her nightmare had begun, LV-426. Suddenly she felt slightly sick as she recalled the harsh planetoid she had first stepped onto fifty seven years ago. The howling wind and cold biting atmosphere still caused her to react in a cold sweat even all these years removed from that moment.

"Hey, Ripley," Hudson said taking note of her sudden ashen look before she seemed to regain control. She glanced up at him, expressionless. "Don't worry, little lady. Me and my squad of ultimate killing machines will protect you. Check it out." He slapped the controls of the servocannon mounted in the overhead gun bay, careful not to hit any of the ready studs. "Independently targeting particle-beam phalanx gun. Ain't she a cutey? Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phased-plasma pulse-rifles, RPGs. We got sonic ee-lectronic cannons, we got nukes no flukes, we got knives, sharp sticks—"

"Knock that shit off Hudson, your voice is annoying me," Alexander Marks shouted before Apone shoved Hudson back into his seat and gave him a glare of warning. "Man he gives me a headache," Alex moaned aloud rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah I know exactly how you feel, for once I wish he'd just keep his mouth shut," Sara Evans agreed with a nod of her head.

"Ah man…. now you've gone and hurt my feelings Evans," Hudson shot back sarcastically making her glare at him in response to which he grinned.

"Like I give a shit Willy boy," Evans shot back with a darker glare.

"Knock it off you two. God… you're beginning to sound like an old married couple," Drake growled out in disgust.

"Ewww as if Drake," Evans responded in complete revulsion at the very idea.

Drake grinned as he glanced at Vasquez who smirked back at him and then they smashed their fists against one another, they loved annoying their comrades. It proved to be so entertaining, at least for them.

Gorman ignored the voices in the back of the APC and focused on bringing up the secure camera link. Each marine's helmet had a mini cam attached to it which allowed him to see what they would see. It made gathering the necessary picture of what was going on without leaving the APC easier, until he knew the Colony was secure enough for him. Burke and Ripley he intended for them to stay within the safety of the APC with Bishop ready to go at a moment's notice.

"Drake, check your camera please. I'm getting a lot of static from it," He ordered into his mic and was rewarded with the camera suddenly jerking downward before clearing. He guessed Drake had smacked the camera against the cross bars, but whatever he had done it had worked. "Ok that's done it, now pan to the right," he said and watched as the picture changed and showed most of the company in their seats including Ripley and Burke.

"Sir, we are through the clouds and homing in on the colony's beacon," Ferro reported a few seconds later through the mic. "So far no radio transmissions are being received or sent from the colony, however the transmitter does appear to be online," she added and he could hear the worry in her tone at this turn out. A total black out of all transmissions from the colony, yet the transmitter seemed undamaged pointed more to Ripley's Aliens than transmitter failure.

"Roger that Ferro, keep trying just in case someone is on the toilet and can't come to the comm system," Gorman said in response, trying for some humor even though he knew it would fall flat and he was correct as all Ferro did was close the link between them.

"How many drops is this for you Lieutenant?" Ripley decided to ask deciding to find out what kind of man their supposed leader was.

"Thirty eight simulated," Gorman answered with a shrug.

Vasquez shared a look with Drake and decided to ask something more pertinent to the mission.

"How many combat drops?" she asked with a slight frown.

"Er…two maybe thee including this one," Gorman reluctantly answered not wanting to lie and seen as his back was facing from his team he failed to see the frowns and looks of surprise his answer provoked.

Ripley stared at Burke but he just shrugged his shoulders as if the man's obvious lack of experience meant nothing. She suddenly had an even worse feeling about agreeing to come, but still lives were at stake and that was what she had to focus on.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Hey Ripley, you've seen the map layout of the planet and where the colony of Hadley's Hope is, right?" Wierzbowski inquired to which she nodded. "Then how far do you think it is from the derelict? Do you think it's possible they may have found it on a recon patrol?" he added.

Ripley considered the question, as no one had brought it up during the briefing or the last minute prep before the Marines got armed and loaded into the APC. It was a valid idea that the colonist's themselves had found the ship during a recon of the planet. The planet had been colonized forty years after the Nostromo had visited it or at least that was what was what stood in the records of the company, so Hadley's Hope had seventeen years to explore the planet. Depending on how far the derelict was from the colony then they may just have discovered it. But she couldn't help a nagging feeling that the only reason the derelict had been found was because she had been found and something she had said during her review had given someone at the company an idea where to look. She glanced at Burke and wondered if he was really only here as a rep for the company as they had helped financed it.

"It is possible a recon has finally stumbled upon it. I mean if I'm right and it is the Aliens behind the colony going dark then they must have found it," Ripley finally answered quite aware she was now the focus of all the Marines, bar Hicks who remained asleep. "But then again maybe the Aliens found the colony, but that idea is less likely," she mused.

"Why?" Crowe asked listening intensely.

"All the Aliens on the derelict were in eggs frozen in stasis, for any adult Aliens to be born they needed a host to gestate in and from what Dallas, Kane and I saw in our survey of the ship there was no sighs of any adult forms of the things running around," Ripley answered calmly.

"But your report stated that the Alien pilot died from been a host to one of these things, right? So couldn't this thing have created a new nest somewhere closer to the colony and that is what has attacked the colonists?" Hudson inquired, ignoring the startled looks his insightful question evoked.

He knew he was seen primary as a joker within his team and most often he didn't mind that, but there were times for jokes and bullshitting his teammates. Now was not the time, they were facing a potentially lethal enemy and he didn't want to be caught flatfooted.

Ripley had never considered that before, she remembered the corpse of the giant looking alien that had been piloting the derelict, the huge hole in its chest and the strange way it looked like something had busted through its ribcage. She had never once thought after learning about the alien after Kane's death that another could be on the planet thanks to it using the pilot to gestate.

Hudson's insightful question chilled her because she wondered what had hatched from the pilot. An alien similar to the one she encountered on the Nostromo or did different hosts create different adult aliens? 'And would they grow more powerful the older they got?' she wondered.

"I suppose that is possible, I've never considered what became of whatever burst out of the pilots chest," Ripley finally responded, realizing she had been silent too long. "In fact thanks to that question Hudson I think I've got new nightmares waiting for me if I find some way to get to sleep tonight," she said with a very troubled look in her eyes.

"Sorry, it just came to me," was all Hudson could say in response with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Probably a good thing I think. It makes us aware of a possible second nest existing, apart from the eggs in the derelict," Frost mused aloud to which no one could disagree.

"Yeah I agree, but if it does exists that just makes our job all the harder," Ripley finally said with a grim look.

"For now that is just speculation people," Gorman shouted back from the command centre, our focus for now is on the ship being the primary source of any alien outbreak," he reminded them. "Ok Ferro I see the atmosphere processor on the cam and the primary docking area. We will unload there then circle until we call the all clear," he ordered turning back to matters at hand.

"Roger that sir," Ferro responded as she guided the dropship over the colony and straight to the large docking area, which was littered with large crates and tractors all laying around abandoned. She brought the dropship in low and then hovered as close to the ground as she could safely bring it, then she nodded to Spunkmeyer who flipped the switch to open the bay door and thus allowed the APC to disembark.

A few seconds later she heard Bishop in her mic. "Ok we are clear Ferro," the android reported.

"Roger that Bishop, be safe," Ferro responded as she then brought the dropship up even as Spunkmeyer flipped the switch to close the bay. She then set herself a patrol route around the colony until the all clear was given and she could land again.

+AMTH+

(APC)

Bishop drove straight for the main hub of the colony which he easily recalled from the maps he had reviewed before leaving the Sulaco. It would give the team the best entry into the colony and would ensure that nothing could sneak up behind them should there be any hostiles within. Of course once inside and past the opening hub that would soon change. The deeper inside the colony they went the more the chance they could be jumped from anywhere, but he knew they were aware of that.

"How're we doing Bishop?" Gorman inquired through the mic.

"Another five minutes and we should be outside the main hub, from there you can disembark," Bishop responded. "I will keep the APC on station outside so we can keep track of the team once they are inside. It also will ensure nothing comes at them from this direction as we would see it first," he explained. "However once they are deeper inside they need to be aware that there are plenty of places these creatures could be hiding should they be inside like Ripley suspects. Considering the colony's transmitter shows no damage I think we have to consider hostile action, which means Ripley's Aliens might be inside," he continued.

"I agree, the transmitter is clearly still operational, but there is no one around to transmit," Gorman responded with a slight frown wondering yet again if such creatures could exist. "Not a good sign. Alright Apone get the company ready," he ordered while turning to look over his shoulder at Apone who stood watching the camera feed. "You deploy as soon as we stop," he added.

"Yes Sir," Apone nodded as he stubbed out his cigar and turned to his people. "Ok people, let's get hot, Drake and Vasquez you two are out first covering our flanks," he ordered to which the two smartgunners nodded their heads as they grabbed their weapons from the nearby racks. "And please will someone wake up Hicks? Man that guy," he added trailing off as he shook his head and Ripley got the idea this was something Hicks had done before.

Hudson shook Hicks awake with a grin, wondering not for the first time how anyone could sleep during a combat drop. What was even more impressive was the way Hicks was instantly on his feet weapon in hand showing no signs of ever being asleep. His friend was as always calm and ready, grabbing his own weapon he quickly prepared to disembark. The APC quickly came to a halt and Apone pulled the door open.

Drake and Vasquez wasted no time in jumping out, one going left and one going right and then Hicks was straight after them with the others following. Hudson was the last out with Apone and they made sure the APC was secure before leaving; it was raining somewhat but nothing too bad.

+AMTH+

(Hadley's Hope)

They headed straight for the large secured door leading to the insides of the colony. Apone quickly tried the control panel, but found it locked down making him let out a grunt of annoyance.

"Hudson, get up here and run a bypass, this thing is locked down," he ordered.

"No problem sir," Hudson responded and quickly moved forward towards the door while pulling his bypass kit out of his backpack after slinging his weapon over his shoulder. He quickly set to work hooking the device up to the door control panel. He noted the green light that came on, showing that he was in and moved to open up the lockdown. A few seconds later they all heard a large creaking sound before the door opened. Hudson grinned as he disconnected the device and nodded at Apone who grinned back. While he sometimes found Hudson to be annoying he would never question his competence as a marine or his skill with tech stuff.

"Ok first squad move in. Hicks make sure to stay in contact," Apone ordered as Hicks looked at him nodded and then moved in with Drake, Frost, Crowe, Wierzbowski, Marks and Dietrich. "Make sure you keep yourself on that tracker. You get a reading you call it in," he added over the mic.

"Roger that sir," Hicks voice quickly came back.

"Okay second squad on me, Vasquez you're on point," Apone ordered to which the Hispanic woman nodded and quickly moved in with Hudson, Cameron, Shepard, Evans and Jackson quickly following. "Hudson, you better keep a damn close eye on that tracker you got me?" he warned as he followed his team in.

"Don't worry sir, I'm on it," Hudson assured him and hoping nothing would go wrong.

+AMTH+

(APC)

Gorman watched as the teams advanced through the hub of the colony both heading in opposite directions once they hit the first main turning point. He sensed that Burke and Ripley came up behind him to watch and he was okay with that as long as they didn't get in the way. He listened and watched, hoping that all this was be an easily solvable problem and that Ripley's monsters did not exist.

+AMTH+

(Hadley's Hope)

Hicks glanced at the tracker in Frost's hand and noted that it was clear as it had been since entering, while on one hand this should be a comforting feeling it was also a very bad sign as it should be picking up the colonist's. Hadley's Hope had been home to three hundred men, women and children and they could not just have vanished. So far they had seen no bodies, but clearly something or someone had attacked the place. He paused suddenly and glanced down as he noted what could only be burn marks right through the metal grating. Bending down he felt the ragged strips whatever had been the cause had left. This wasn't good because it pointed straight towards Ripley's Aliens.

"Sir, looks like someone bagged one of Ripley's critters here. It's completely melted right through the metal and straight through the intervening levels," he reported.

"Any sign of the colonist's Hicks?" Gorman inquired through his mic after a few moments.

"None, no bodies but plenty of signs of a battle," Hicks answered as he wiped at his forehead without dislodging his helmet. "It's like the ancient legends of a ghost town," he added as he looked around.

"If you guys like whatever you are looking at and it sounds great really then you are really going to like this," Hudson's voice broke in through the comm chatter.

+AMTH+

(APC)

Ripley looked at the cam screens and noted what Hudson and his team had found. It was a huge hole melted right through the upper level and ceiling of the colony. Nothing man made could have done it, all she could think was someone had managed to kill quite a few of the Aliens somewhat and it had burned right through. She wondered how it had been done, she couldn't imagine facing so damn many to have made that kind of a hole. The colonist's must have put up a hell of a fight before having been taken.

"What the hell could have done that?" Burke whispered in what sounded to her like awe.

"Only one thing, someone and I don't know how must have caught a lot of the Aliens in an explosion of some kind," Ripley mused aloud. "I mean look how it has cauterized," she pointed out.

"Yeah but I see no corpses of these things you described," Gorman argued listening even though he was keeping an eye on the team's cameras.

"No but then they may take their own corpses away or they degrade faster than our own bodies when we die," Ripley shot back. "Look at the size of that hole Gorman, no way has that been caused by anything man made," she argued. "I think if humans had done that they would be plenty of people still left to send a distress signal. Somehow I doubt the colonists have something here that could do that, do they?" she asked turning to Burke.

Burke considered the question seriously even though he knew the answer already. He had to make himself look competent to the Marines and more especially to Ripley. He knew he had already butted heads with her now due to her insistence on the company being behind the deaths of some of her crew which he had vehemently denied, that did not help his plans for the future because he knew he needed to be on Ripley's good side.

"No nothing I know the colony has in supply could have made a hole like that, not even the seismic charges they used for digging," he finally answered. "We had a list made up of everything that had been delivered to Hadley's Hope in the last year and nothing showed up that could be lethal to the colony itself," he informed them.

"Great, ok Hicks, Apone continue your sweeps, but exercise extreme caution. Do you understand me?" Gorman ordered into his mic.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

(Hadley's Hope)

Apone listened to the order and took careful note that his commanding officer sounded a little nervous, that was a not a good sign. He and his team had listened to what Burke and Ripley had talked about, clearly whatever had made the hole had not been friendly and more than likely was extremely hostile. But they still had quite a bit of habitat to go through and it was possible the colonists were hiding deeper within the colony complex. That was highly unlikely he knew, but until the sweep was finished it was an option that had to be kept open.

"Ok break into pairs. Two groups of two's and one group of three and continue through the complex, keep your eyes open and your trackers on," Apone ordered as he decided it was time to split up. "Hudson, you and Vasquez are with me," he added to which the two nodded and moved to the junction which split three ways. He nodded at Evans as he and Cameron turned left while Jackson and Shepard went right leaving them to go straight ahead. He hoped none of them ran into anything to troublesome.

In another part of the complex Hicks too split up his squad the same way as Apone had done, he pressed forward with Drake and his eyes glued to the tracker he held. The complex was too quiet for his liking. How did three hundred people just vanish like the wind? There were no bodies and no blood. There were clear signs of fighting all over the place but nothing left behind to show what might have happened to the colonists. If this was the work of the Aliens they clearly had a way of disabling the colonists without causing too much damage to them as to make their victims bleed. He wondered if Ripley could shed any light of that.

"Ripley, the colonists are gone but there are no signs of them being badly injured now I know what happened to your crew was bad, but can you think back and tell if these things have a way of disabling a person without harming them?" he inquired into his mic.

"Yes they do, I don't know how exactly Hicks, but when Dallas went into the vents to flush it out he was taken without it killing him and we found no blood and later when I was trying to escape the Nostromo I found him in the creature's nest cocooned to the wall and still very much alive," Ripley's voice came back after a short but tense silence.

He knew she did not like to think about what happened to the Nostromo and her crew, but only she had the answers to the questions they still had. "Bishop any ideas?" he inquired knowing the android was listening in as well.

"My guess would be some kind of toxin that paralyzes the victim on contact, thus allowing them to be dragged away," Bishop responded over the mic. "It would make the Aliens work much easier and ensure there were few casualties and thus allow them to carry the paralyzed colonists anywhere within the complex and even outside it," he explained.

"Which explains why there are no bodies for us to find, any idea where the nest could be if it is within the complex?" Alexander inquired.

"I don't know Marks, it could be anywhere, but if memory serves me right it would not be anywhere in the open. It would be well hidden," Ripley answered. "The nest on the Nostromo was deep in the engine section near the primary heat vents," she added.

"That may be something to check out another time, for now focus on finishing your sweeps," Gorman interrupted before anyone could say anything else. "Keep anymore speculations to yourselves. We still need to find answers and so far we've come up with shit except that something happened to the colony," he told his men and even through the mic they could all hear he was growing agitated. "Now find me the answers we need," he ordered.

"Okay people you heard the man, keep looking and no more yapping," Apone ordered with a smirk as he chomped on his cigar while he moved on.

+AMTH+

Ripley glared at the back of Gorman's head for his dismissal of the group discussing possible problems and solutions. Hicks question had pointed out a tremendous advantage the Aliens had over them that she had all but forgotten. Their ability to paralyze their victims and drag them away as they had done to Dallas proved they could be even more lethal. That they had somehow subdued the whole colony was horrifying to her. The fact there were no bodies must mean all of them had been taken, the number of Aliens must be in the hundreds she realized and she had no doubt they were behind this, but Gorman clearly hoped this was something simpler to fix or answer. Burke however at least seemed to believe the Aliens could be here or at least seemed to believe it. His dismissal of her claims concerning the company being behind Ash's attempts on their lives had annoyed her greatly and made her doubt him. 'But then again him being a company man could she ever truly trust him?' She doubted it.

There was no more talking for the rest of the time it took the two teams to sweep through the main corridors of the colony, yet Ripley took note they did not actually enter any of the main command hubs of the complex except for the sleeping areas. Clearly those were being left till last. She wondered if that was standard procedure or something Gorman and Burke had planned in advance.

"Sir, we've completed our sweep there is nothing here," Apone finally reported after what must have been another ten minutes of searching. "Orders?" he inquired.

"Okay Apone take your squad and secure operations and wait for us there, Hicks have you completed your sweep?" Gorman responded and then switched to talk to the leader of the other team.

"Yeah just now, but we've found nothing either sir. Wherever the colonists are it is not within the colony complex itself," Hicks answered.

"Then bring your team back to the main gate and meet us there, we're coming in," Gorman ordered after a quick sigh, wondering just where the colonists were.

"We're going in there?" Ripley asked in surprise.

"The area is secure Ripley, not one blip on any of the team's trackers so yes we are going in to see for ourselves what we can find," Gorman responded as he turned to face her and gave her a mild look.

Ripley wanted to argue, but decided to let it go as clearly Gorman was not going to listen to her. She glanced at Burke, but he just shrugged his shoulders as if he was powerless in all of this and while maybe he was she couldn't help but think he could do something considering Gorman's lack of experience. But she kept quiet and just followed the two men to the door of the APC where Bishop now waited showing no signs of being affected by the weather. She watched as Gorman disembarked with Burke and talked to Bishop while they waited for Hicks and his team to return. She decided to remain inside the APC. She took a few deep breaths as she prepared to finally set foot back on LV-426 for the first time in fifty-seven years. Finally Hicks exited through the large door of the complex with Frost and Wierzbowski beside him. Ripley finally left the APC and closed the door before joining the others. Following behind them she couldn't help but hesitate at the door. Aa sudden fear had gripped her and she neither felt the rain or the cold wind, but she felt the fear creep up her spine and threaten to overwhelm her.

"Hey, you okay?" Hicks's sudden presence and concerned look thankfully broke through the moment and the fear reseeded much to her relief.

"I think so, just a little uneasy", Ripley said in response as she moved and finally entered the complex, missing the look Hicks shared with Wierzbowski who quickly moved up to cover Ripley's left flank while Hicks took the right.

She quickly took note of their presence and felt a lot safer with them so close by. She found she was beginning to trust Hicks and Wierzbowski. They seemed like good honest people even for Marines and she doubted they would have anything to do with the company's dark deeds. She still however had little insight into the rest of the squad, except maybe Apone. She made sure to keep her pace close to theirs.

"Sir, it is quite clear the colonists put up a hell of a fight, but the barricades they built to keep whatever attacked them failed and they were overrun," Drake reported when he noted Gorman had arrived, beside him stood Crowe, Marks and Dietrich. "But again we've found no bodies, but plenty signs of damage to the complex that could only have come from some kind of acid," he added.

"Shit," Gorman cursed as it was now clear this was no simple problem to fix so they could go home. The colonists were gone, there were sure signs of a battle but no bodies left behind for them to study to try and find some clues as to what was the cause. As much as he knew he shouldn't he was still hoping Ripley's monsters didn't exist, but the signs were not good.

"We'll head to operations through the medical bay. Maybe they left some documents that might give us some answers," Gorman decided as Drake nodded and lowering his smart gun he pressed forward toward the medical bay.

Ripley followed beside the comforting presence of Hicks and Wierzbowski, she noted Frost and Crowe just behind Burke and that Frost had one of the trackers and was keeping a close eye on it. She had gotten a good look at the device before they had left the Sulaco and noted how much more advanced it was to the one Ash had scrambled together to help track the Alien back on the Nostromo before he had turned on them, the range on it alone was double what Ash's device had been capable off.

"Crowe, Dietrich you both are first in, Drake follows to cover you," Gorman ordered as they came to a dead stop before a large door with a red cross on it. "Hicks, you and Wierzbowski cover our rear," he added.

All the Marines nodded and Crowe and Dietrich quickly moved to each side of the door leading to the medical bay. Drake instantly leveled his smart gun at the center point and relaxed into a combat ready position to fire should he need to. Ripley noted Hicks and Wierzbowski were now facing behind them keeping a close eye on their rear, while Marks stayed close to Gorman in a clearly defensive position. "On three, one two three," Drake counted and immediately on three the doors were pushed open, and Crowe and Dietrich rushed in with Drake right behind them. A few moments of silence followed. "Clear," Drake suddenly shouted and Gorman nodded and moved with Burke and Marks and Bishop following close behind. Ripley followed with Hicks and Wierzbowski.

The medical bay was quite large but in just as messy as the rest of the complex. As they moved in Ripley's attention was drawn to an adjoining room and what she saw made her want to be sick. In eight tanks filled with water lay eight of the facehugging creatures like the one that had gotten Kane. She jumped almost out of her boots as Hicks placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and just nudged her aside as he moved into the room while Wierzbowski covered them.

"Sir we've found something," Wierzbowski shouted and Gorman and the others quickly came back having somehow bypassed the room without noticing what was inside it.

"My god," Gorman murmured as he finally saw proof that Ripley's stories were not just something she made up, the creatures were real.

"Are those the same kind as the one in your report?" Burke inquired to which Ripley just nodded, not trusting herself to speak just yet. "Unbelievable, how the hell did simple colonists get a hold of so many of these things?" he mused aloud as he stared almost transfixed at the creatures.

Bishop who had moved over to one of the counters picked up a chart and began to go through it just as Burke moved his face closer to the container he was looking at. "Jesus Burke don't be an idiot, these things are dangerous," Ripley hissed, but even as Burke turned to look at her the creature inside the container suddenly lunged forward and tried to attack him, only being stopped by the container. Burke backed away quickly in fear even as Ripley herself jumped before relaxing as she noted the container seemed to hold the creature in. Hicks chuckled.

"Looks like love at first to me Burke," Hicks taunted the company rep making the other Marines except Gorman laugh and Burke looked at the man in surprise even as the creature struggled to get at him. "Oh yeah he likes you man. Why don't you give him a nice big wet kiss?" he added.

"Knock it off Hicks that is not funny," Gorman ordered in a sharp brisk tone without even looking up, but it had the desired effect and the Marines stopped laughing.

Burke gave Hicks a slight glare which had effect on the Marine who just turned away. Ripley shook her head and took careful not that Burke was once again inspecting the two creatures that were still moving.

"Only two of the eight are still alive. The rest are dead as noted by a change in skin color the chart says," Bishop noted aloud as he read from the chart he had been reading. "Marachuk John L was killed while they tried to surgically remove the creature, it is noted in the file that all normal procedures proved completely useless," he continued. "The surgeon a Chester O Ling also noted the danger of the acid these things have instead of blood. It is reported he lost two nurses to the acid when they attempted their first removal," he went on. "I think Lieutenant we can now reasonably say Ripley's report on the Aliens being on this planet is accurate. I think we can also say it is the Aliens who are responsible for the colony going dark," he stated turning to Gorman who nodded in what looked like reluctant agreement.

"I have to agree, this is proof positive that what Ripley reported to the board was spot on," Burke agreed as well, finally turning away from the containers. "I guess we can also say this is proof that the Alien was behind the loss of the Nostromo and her crew just like Ripley reported," he added.

Before anyone could say anything the tracker in Frost's hand began to admit a loud bleeping much to everyone's surprise and Ripley began to feel her heart begin to speed up.

"Report?" Gorman ordered even as Bishop decided to take the chart's notes and stuff them into his pocket.

"It's coming from behind us sir, somehow something is coming up the corridor we just left," Frost answered as Hicks joined him and looked down at the tracker.

"Apone any of your squad near medical?" Gorman inquired into his mic.

"Er...that's a negative sir, we are all in operations as per your last order," Apone quickly responded. "Trouble?" he inquired.

"Unsure, I'll get back to you," Gorman responded before cutting the channel.

"So what do we do?" Marks inquired.

"Let's check it out. Drake you and Hicks are on point," Gorman ordered. "Marks you and Dietrich are flanking them, Frost keep your eyes glued to that tracker and Crowe you and Wierzbowski cover our rear," he added as he moved to follow Drake and Hicks who had already crossed over to the entry doors.

Ripley had to force her feet to move to catch up to Gorman, Burke and Bishop and thus allowing Crowe and Wierzbowski to cover their rear without waiting for her, they re-entered the corridor and began to retrace their steps. The beeping from the tracker quickly began to get louder and louder, Ripley forced herself to relax as this time she was not alone and they had a lot more fire power to defend themselves with. Suddenly a dark shadow seemed to jump across them and even as Drake opened fire, Hicks showed his arm up under the smart gun and make it miss its target.

"Fuck man, what the hell you do that for?" Drake demanded in outrage.

"Wasn't a hostile," Hicks shot back with a glare having seem for a short instant longish blond hair in a wisp of light as the shadow passed. "Ripley, I think you're going to want to check this out," he shouted back and was relieved Ripley didn't hesitate to comply and joined him even as he bent down to look under the nearby grate, the others shined their torches into the darkness and quickly revealed a small face looking out at them.

The child for that was what it was looked to be in poor shape, she was filthy and holding onto the head of a small doll. Even as Ripley reached into to try and grab the young girl she flinched back and then rushed out towards a nearby vent and quickly climbed into it. Her speed took the Marines by surprise and they failed to grab her. Ripley not willing to let her go quickly grabbed the flashlight Bishop was holding and squeezed into the vent after her. She ignored the calls for her to come back and kept on going. The vent was small, but she was able to squeeze through it, still it was a tight fit and thus she didn't stop until she found the exit and pulled herself out into a large and messy room although what its purpose was escaped her. She realized that the young girl was not alone, three other colonists were inside with her. Two were women at least in their twenty's and the other was a male who looked slightly older.

"Well it's about god damn time, a rescue party or at least I assume you are part of a rescue party," the man spat clearly angry.

"Yes I'm, my name is Ripley," Ripley responded knowing it was best to ignore the man's anger as it was probably well justified just as hers had been during her review by the board. "I'm a civilian adviser to the Marine detachment sent to find out why the colony has gone dark," she explained.

"We were attacked by creatures out a god damn nightmare that's what happened," the man snarled in reply.

"Carl please calm down before you attract their attention, you know better," one of the women said with a glare. "How many are you?" she asked turning to Ripley.

"Fifteen Marines plus their commander, one android me and the company rep for the mission," Ripley answered calmly.

"Should have known those shitty company pricks would send someone, they are the reason all of our friends are dead," the other woman who the little girl was holding onto spat. "They are the reason we found that damn ship," she went to continue, but Ripley quickly cut her off.

"Believe me I know the company has a lot of shit to its name, but right now that can wait. Let's get back to my team and then get somewhere safe where we can discuss this," Ripley said knowing she had indeed been right to be afraid that the company was behind the colony having any contact with the Aliens. Which meant either the flight recorder on the Nostromo's escape shuttle was behind them knowing where the ship was or she had slipped up during the review and revealed that detail. She let out a silent curse.

"Fine, follow me," the man growled as he led them out of the room through a larger grill in the back and quickly led them back to the corridor where she had left the rest of the team.

"Ripley that was stupid running of by yourself," Gorman started, but she was in no mood for any shit now that she had some witnesses to who was responsible for the disaster here.

"Save it Gorman, I found the girl and three other survivors," Ripley cut in much to the man's surprise.

"Are there anymore survivors?" Alexander Marks inquired as he found his eyes stray to one of the two women, to him she looked stunning even though her clothes we rumpled and dirty from the weeks she had clearly been in hiding. She seemed to take note of his attention, but quickly looked away, obviously she didn't trust any of them not that he blamed her.

"No, we're the last survivors and if you had waited any longer we'd probably be dead by the time you did arrive," the man spat as he glared at them.

"Carl just take it easy, we're rescued now," the second woman said soothingly. "I'm sorry we have a lot of issues considering we sent out a distress signal weeks ago but got no answer," she explained.

"We received no distress signal mam, if we had I would know about it," Burke instantly stated cutting off whatever she had been about to say.

"And you are?" the woman inquired with a glare.

"Carter Burke, I represent Weyland-Yutani on this mission," Burke responded and instantly any friendliness from the survivors vanished as they backed away slightly from him.

"The company can kiss my ass," Carl snarled only for both women to place calming hands on his shoulders.

"We can get into this later. I think we should reunite with Apone and his men," Ripley suggested before anyone could say anything more.

"Agreed, but before we go would care to introduce yourselves?" Gorman inquired already sensing the tension in these people.

"I'm Tessa Nichols, this is Kara Benson and our loud friend is Carl Williams and this little one is Rebecca Jordan the only survivor of thirty-five children who had been stationed in Hadley's Hope," the taller of the two women said in response.

"Lieutenant Gorman of the Colonial Marine Corps," Gorman said by way of response. "This is Hicks, Marks, Drake, Crowe, Frost, Dietrich and Wierzbowski and our android Bishop," he continued. "You've already met Ripley and Burke," he added. "Ok let's get to operations, then we can talk," he ordered. Drake quickly nodded and moved to the front while Frost and Hicks moved up behind them.

The group silently made their way to operations. Ripley however kept her eye on Burke and wondered if he had anything to do with what had happened to Hadley's Hope. According to the survivors the Company were behind the colony having any contact with the Aliens. So had they sent Burke to cover that fact up or was he here to find out why their plan had failed? She just didn't know and that irked her, but we would uncover the truth one way of the other. She would make the company pay if they were behind this mess. She would have revenge for her dead friends from the Nostromo and for the colonists who were now also dead.


	6. Chapter 6

+AMTH+

(Hadley's Hope)

Ripley couldn't help but let out a breath as they reached Operations, it was at least a secure area and the entire unit was now present. She couldn't help but feel exposed in those hallways, it took everything for her to focus on the mission and not allow her fear to overcome her. She wondered just what the surviving colonists would say once Gorman started questioning them, she had a sneaking suspicion it would validate her belief the Company was behind this disaster. She watched as the marines began to relax as well placing their weapons against a wall before separating to do various tasks, Gorman led the survivors to a secluded cubicle with Burke and she quickly followed.

"Crowe, grab your bag and check these survivors over will you" Gorman ordered as he spotted the med-tech talking to Frost. The woman glanced back at them in surprise before quickly grabbing the medical kit and moving to join them.

"We could really do with something to eat and drink if you don't mind" Tessaa requested keeping a close eye on the marines uncertain whether any of them were trustworthy, hell she could already tell the Company rep was bad news and she still wasn't sure what to make of the woman who called herself Ripley. "Especially Rebecca, we've all but run out of any supplies we had with us" she added.

"Of course, Hudson grab some food and drink from our supplies for these people" Gorman shouted at Hudson who sat near one of the work stations which he was clearly focused on using at the moment. "Er… forget that Hudson continue scanning for those PDTs, Frost you do it" he stated once he realised he was interrupting the man best equipped to hopefully find the missing colonists.

Hudson didn't even look up or even acknowledge his commanders orders as he continued to use the map station to search for the colonists, he wanted off this planet because it gave him the damn creeps. Something wasn't right here and for the first time in his life he was suddenly uneasy, maybe it was Hicks's certainty that this mission was not going to be as easy as they had first believed or maybe it was the fact that nearly ever colonist was missing without any real proof of how or where. He glanced up only briefly so as to crack his neck which was becoming uncomfortable been bent for so long, as he did so his eyes caught those of the female survivor called Tessa as Crowe checked her out. He found himself suddenly lost in her gaze for the few seconds they stared at each other, then she looked away and he wondered just why she had such an effect on him. Running a hand over his face he turned his attention back to the map station, but thoughts of Tessa continued to run in the back of his mind.

"They all check out fine sir except for signs of fatigue and malnutrition especially the kid but other than that I think they'll live" Crowe finally said as she finished checking the four survivors just as Frost returned and handed out some food packs and a drink to each.

"Good return to your duties Crowe" Gorman said with a nod. "Ok I think it's time you told us exactly what happened here and where your fellow colonists are?" he inquired trying but failing to sound confident because it was clear to Ripley that he was uneasy and he was not the only one from some of the looks of his fellow marines.

"It is quite simple Lieutenant a couple of weeks ago we received a top level order from the company to check out a grid reference that was far from the Colony or where we had explored so far in the time we've been here" Kara stated coldly. "It came with no warning of the danger we would encounter, no information on any hostile organisms we may face and thus we sent one team out who just happened to be Rebecca's parents along with Rebecca herself and her brother Timmy" she informed them. "An hour after reaching the co-ordinates we received a highly panicked distress call from Haley, Rebecca's mother and two more teams rushed out to help" here Kara paused as she turned slightly pale as she recalled the events that followed.

"Take deep breaths and when you feel like you please continue" Ripley said before Gorman or Burke could say anything to anger any of the colonists. The very fact that the young girl had been to the derelict ship that had housed the eggs that began her nightmares chilled her to the bone. "You are not the first to find that ship, I know what it contains" she added.

"How, I thought no one but us had found it?" Carl demanded to know.

"My name is Ripley and I was on this planet fifty seven years ago with my ship the Nostromo, we were ordered here by the Company to check out a beacon my ship had detected on the way home after our last cargo run" Ripley answered quickly before Gorman or Burke could stop her. "We found the derelict, my captain led a search party containing my first officer and environment officer all went inside to explore it and during that exploration my first officer was attacked by the face hugging parasite inside and incapacitated" she explained. "I tried to stop them bringing him back onto our ship due to quarantine protocols but the android posing as our new science officer overrode the door lock and let them inside, what we didn't know at the time was the Company had given him secret orders to obtain a specimen of the alien lifeforms that you were forced to find now" she went on.

"You have no proof of that Ripley need I remind you" Burke cut in only to be met by glares from Ripley and the surviving colonists.

"Save it Burke, anyway we headed home and after a day the face hugger fell off and my first officer woke up seeming fine and we settled in for a last meal before going back into cryosleep when he suddenly started convulsing and an alien burst from his chest and fled" Ripley shot back and quickly continued with her story. "That was only the first death from my crew in time the rest would follow including an attempt by the android to kill three of us to ensure the survival of the alien, eventually I escaped on the ships escape shuttle and after ejecting the alien into space I blew the ship and put myself into cryosleep and somehow drifted far afield for the next fifty seven years until my shuttle was found by a salvage ship and brought home" she finished.

"I take it you were questioned about what happened to you?" Tessa inquired warily.

"Yes and I told them the whole horrid story and I am afraid that by doing so I dammed you all to this nightmare, that by telling them about the ship they would be interested in it and the alien eggs it contained even though I never gave out any co-ordinates" Ripley answered with a nod of her head still unsure if that is what had led to this horror. "But it can't be a coincidence that they only located the derelict just after my shuttle was found, maybe there was something in the logs that showed them where to send your team" she pointed out.

"Son of a bitch I knew it" Carl spat. "So it's thanks to you we had to go to hell" he cursed.

"Back off Carl she didn't know the Company would be so stupid as to send only a couple of colonists without any real warning or backup to check out the ship once she reported it" Kara urged him back away from Ripley. "If she told them everything she knew it should have told them enough to send a proper scientific and military search team" she added.

"I told them everything this alien lifeform was capable off believe me, but they didn't believe me and basically called me crazy" Ripley snorted in disgust as she recalled the ending of her debriefing. "They revoked my flight status and threatened me with jail and having to pay for the destruction of the Nostromo, they ignored everything I said" she snarled glaring at Burke as he was the only rep of the Company here to which he frowned in response.

"Can we please move back to the topic at hand as to what happened here?" Gorman said hoping to move things back to a less hostile subject.

"William was brought back with one of those damn face hugging creatures attached to his face as was John Marachuk and Milo Jennings who also went into the ship, we tried to cut them off but they bled acid and seemed to tighten their holds on their victims" Kara took up the story again without any more prompting even though Carl continued to glare at Ripley and then Burke. "John and Milo both died during our attempts to remove it, William died when the creature it had implanted within him exploded out of his chest and then from there more and more of the things appeared and we started vanishing or dying in equal measure" she told them with a shiver. "We sent a distress call a week after we realised just how much danger we were in, but there was no response and two weeks in the comm system was heavily damaged and we despaired of any help coming but we didn't give up" she stated.

"We tried to fight with what little weapons we had which wasn't much but it was no good, they were too fast and to dangerous and more of us died trying to fight than anything else" Tessaa put in as Kara took a breath. "We tried barricading every possible entrance into the Colony but they somehow bypassed every one we put up, eventually only a few of us remained and we decided to hide as our best bet" she added. "Rebecca thankfully was an expert in the best places to hide in the duct system and also to our good fortune she was still alive to show us" she went on.

"What happened to her Mother?" Ripley couldn't help but ask.

"Haley was taken four weeks into our struggle saving Rebecca from the fate that befell Timmy who got taken in the second week" Kara answered as Rebecca buried her face into Kara's side.

"Newt, don't' call me Rebecca it is just Newt" the young girl managed to say after composing herself.

"So now you know what happened, the Company screwed us" Carl spat. "It sent us into a situation without fare warning and with crappy resources and their stupidity in doing that killed our Colony and more importantly our friends and family" he ranted and this time neither Kara nor Tessa felt compelled to stop him.

"Is it possible there are any more survivors?" Gorman inquired wincing at the very bleak picture they had painted with their story. He knew he had already asked this question when they first met but he wanted to be damn sure of the answer before they left the planet.

"Not that we know of" Kara answered darkly hating been asked this particular question again. "We've been on our own for several days and seen and heard from none of the others who were left when we began to hide" she added. "The last attack split us up badly though so it is slightly possible there are others hiding elsewhere but we've seen no signs of them" she added with a depressive shrug.

"Burke, how come neither Gateway nor anywhere else picked up their distress signal?" Ripley inquired turning to the Company rep as did Gorman.

"That is a good question, nowhere in the report does it say anything about a distress signal been received before we were dispatched to the planet to investigate" Gorman couldn't help but agree.

"I don't know what to tell you but as far as I know there was no distress signal received about any attack on the Colony, if there had been I would have known about it I assure you Ripley" Burke replied as calmly as he could.

"We sent the damn thing or are you calling us liars?" Carl snarled as he tried to move towards Burke only for Gorman to step in his way and push him back.

"Not at all I am just stating that none of my superiors mentioned receiving a distress signal form Hadley's Hope" Burke quickly responded with his hands raised. "If they did get one it was not relayed to me or to anyone else assigned to this mission" he added.

"That you know of" Ripley couldn't help but say as she tried to see any signs of lying from Burke but sadly she couldn't see any at least not yet but she'd keep an eye on him.

"Then we have to make sure we do an extensive search before we leave as we cannot leave anyone behind" Gorman decided after thinking over his options. "Hudson how is that search going?" he shouted to the comm tech.

"Nothing yet sir, but I'll give a yell when I find something" Hudson shouted back without looking up and remained focused on the screen in front of him.

"I suggest you rest and try and recover now you are safe" Gorman suggested to the survivors.

"Safe, we won't be safe until we are off this god damn rock" Tessa sneered as she went and sat down in one of the chairs and began to eat some of the food Frost had brought her.

Kara and Carl did the same leaving Ripley with the newly christened Newt who continued to stare vacantly; she frowned wondering just what horrors she had born witness to. Finally remembering how she used to coax her daughter to eat when she was young she knelt down and began to try and get Newt to do the same, it took some time to convince Newt she was someone to trust but finally the little girl began to eat.

"So how did you survive the alien on your ship?" Kara inquired once she finished eating.

"Luck, we had barely any weapons on board and no way of tracking it until the android came up with a simple motion scanner which was limited in range" Ripley answered knowing they would want better details than she just blew it out of an airlock. "We manged to cobble together some flame units but they did little but keep it off our backs from a short while, it got Dallas my captain in the duct system as we tried to flush it out and then we had to destroy the android after it tried to kill the last of us we decided to abandon ship" she explained. "We needed extra oxygen tanks for three of us and so we split up, I went to set the ships self-destruct as well as capture my cat who was still loose on the ship whilst Parker and Lambert went for the tanks and it attacked them there, Parker couldn't use him flame unit as it got to close to Lambert and he tried to force it backwards by hand and it killed him and then got Lambert who from the sounds of it froze in terror" she added recalling the terrible screams Lambert had admitted over the comm system as she ran to try and help. Those screams still sometimes kept her awake at night, the terror evoked in them still chilled her today, "I got there too late and thus I fled with just my cat to the shuttle" she paused as she remembered the total desolation she felt been the last one alive as she boarded the shuttle.

"You are telling me you took your cat on a deep space haul and it somehow survived contact with this fucking creature?" Carl asked in complete shock his mind baffled by the idea as he had seen up close and personal what these things were capable of doing to full grown humans so the idea of a little cat surviving stunned him.

"He did actually, somehow Jones managed to keep out of the things way long enough for me to capture him and get him into his carryall and escape to the shuttle but somehow the thing got on board with us and I had to eject it into space using the spear gun we had on board and luckily I succeeded and just after that the Nostromo exploded before me and Jonesy went into cryosleep" she finished.

"Unbelievable, a cat survived when we got annihilated, hell even the small marine detachment assigned to the colony was wiped out in the first real engagement before we sent the distress signal" Carl grumbled.

"You had a marine detachment here?" Ripley inquired with interest.

"We did, Al Simpson the colony's head went with them back to the ship after the first few casualties on a mission to destroy the ship but they clearly failed and none of them ever came back" Kara explained with a helpless shrug. "Al never forgave himself for sending William and Haley on their own to the ship, that he never questioned the orders from the Company when they came and he paid the ultimate price for his guilt by going on that mission" she added.

"He would have died anyway just like the others Kara you damn well know that, but at least had he stayed we would have had a better leader than Lydecker who was so overwhelmed once Al was dead it made it easier for us to be overwhelmed" Tessa countered fatalistically.

"No one was prepared for what happened to us, blaming Lydecker is just pointless he did the best he could" Kara shot back. "We all did what we could, it just wasn't enough or maybe there was nothing we could have done differently to stop what happened except not gone to that damn ship" she stated darkly.

"You would never have known about it had I not been found, this is possibly my fault or maybe I didn't slip up and give them co-ordinates to the ship and just reinterested the company in the alien and the ship full of their eggs" Ripley admitted. "My daughter and I tried so hard to keep them away from messing with these things, yet every time they find some evidence of them they keep trying to gain samples of them as if they can be domesticated and are not the most dangerous things in existence" she cursed aloud as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Your daughter encountered these things?" Carl inquired leaning forward.

"She did, when they found the flight recorder from my ship and started fucking around with the things but she took care of it and destroyed any evidence that could have led them here" Ripley answered feeling the swell of pride of what Amanda had managed to accomplish. "I should have stayed floating out in the deep end of space asleep for all time, it would have been better for us all" she concluded.

"You couldn't know what would happen once you were found, hell having been asleep for fifty seven years everything would have been different and maybe you wanted to believe people were better than they used to be" Kara offered weakly.

Before Ripley could answer a loud voice echoed through the room making them all turn to where Hudson was grinning at the map reader. "Yo stop your grinnin and drop your linen! I found them sir" he reported causing Gorman and Burke to quickly join him, Hicks and Apone at the map reader.

"About god damn time Hudson, where are they?" Gorman demanded to know beginning to grow slightly uneasy about the whole mission and his ability to command his people through it.

"Looks like they are all over at the atmospheric processing plant sir, level 3 if I am reading this right" Hudson answered not looking up at his superior officer.

"Looks like a god damn town meeting is going on considering those readings" Hicks noted sarcastically as he blew the smoke from his cigarette out of his mouth.

"Why would they be there?" Ripley inquired moving over to the reader with the other survivors following.

"Maybe the aliens don't like the heat" Burke offered even though he knew from Ripley's report that more than likely the alien species did like hot places to hide in.

That to him mind told him this was where the main nest of the creatures was and he wanted to see what it looked like not that he would be going in there, no that was what the marines were for and their handy shoulder cams. More than likely the PDT'S from the colonists were located there because they had all been dragged to the nest by the creatures to be made hosts, more than likely they were already dead but he wasn't going to bring that up if he could help it.

"No they like hot places Burke I already told you that the alien on my ship made its nest near the primary heating exchange" Ripley countered swiftly. "I don't like the looks of this, I'd say this is where their nest is" she speculated.

"Thought that was back on the derelict ship Ripley?" Hudson inquired glancing at her.

"The primary nest would have been but considering the journey they would have to make to get the captured colonists to it would be way to long, they would have made a secondary nest closer to their prey" Ripley answered. "This has to be it, Gorman if you send the team in you better plan their descent inside carefully" she warned turning to Gorman who turned to glance at her. "More than likely it will be dark, dank and much closed in with little real room to manoeuvre" she went on. "Also these things can climb walls and blend in easily in the dark, your people will be walking into a tomb will only one way out and if they are attacked they could get cut off from that exit" she finished.

"I have to agree with her sir, this area where the PDT'S are has no other exit bar the one leading to the stairs leading to the exit level" Apone stated having joined them at the reader. "If an attack happens the closed off nature of the level will cause us to be fighting almost back to back, with little ability to move and if needs be withdraw" he added.

"Whilst I won't try and advise on military matters or strategy Lieutenant I will make a point that we are expected to check out even a remote possibility of survivors, now Ripley maybe right and this is the nest but it is also possible that this was a fall back point for the colonists or perhaps somewhere they got cut off from the main point of attack" Burke spoke up needed to ensure the team went into the nest.

"It is not a fall back point we made Mr. Burke I can assure you of that" Tessa stated. "And there are way too many signals for this to be a bunch of us cut off somewhere especially at the processing plant which is one place we wouldn't try and hide in as it is way too hot in there to stay for any length of time" she pointed out.

"Be that as it may miss, we still need to ensure some of your fellow colonists may not be dead and seen as there are so many signals well that would account for the majority of the colony bar those who you have stated have already died" Burke countered quickly not willing to allow the nest to be ignored. He needed to see what these creatures had done to the colonists, needed to see just how powerful they truly were.

The camera evidence would be a big help in selling these things to the biological weapons department, who he knew had tried to gain access to these things before quite a few times but because of Ripley, her damnable daughter Amanda and some others they had always been stopped from attaining any specimens. He however would succeed and he would do it using Ripley herself without her even knowing it, all he had to do was play it smart.

"He's right we have to check it out just in case any of them might be alive, still I take Ripley's and my Sergeants advice to heart that we cannot just march in their without a plan" Gorman finally decided cutting off any more discussion. "Apone I want you and Hicks to come up with a way in, something that keeps our way out open in case our field of view is as narrow and dark as Ripley fears" he ordered.

"Understood sir" Apone nodded pleased that the man had listened to him and to Ripley. Going in without a plan would have been suicide. "Do you have any mobile lighting?" he inquired turning to the colonists.

"We may still have some in the cargo bay, we still have access to it thankfully even with the barricades we put up" Carl answered not sure whether he wanted to see this marines take a chance to see if anyone was still alive or just to get off this damn planet and damn any possibility of the others surviving.

"Ok Marks, Jackson, Shepard, Evans and Cameron go gets those lights from the cargo bay, you show them where they are" Apone decided quickly and pointing at Carl who grimaced at been picked but decided not to argue as the quicker they got this done the quicker they could leave the planet. "We can use the mobile lights to light up this nest if it is there, should make shooting anything easier, Hicks you and Hudson find us a plan of the plant's third level and mark every corner and nook there is so we know what to keep an eye out for and plan us an exit strategy" he continued to order and the two nodded in agreement. "Sir we should be ready to go in ten minutes top" he added glancing at Gorman who nodded and left them to it.

"Bishop, power up the APC we'll be heading out soon" Gorman ordered as he passed the synthetic.

"Of course Lieutenant, should I drive?" Bishop inquired.

"No, you stay here and start studying those dead parasites and see if you can find us anything useful to help kill them" Gorman decided as Bishop was not needed to drive the APC as most of the marines were rated to do it.

"What about us?" Kara inquired not really wanting to go with them but also unwilling to be left here without their protection now it was here.

"You will accompany us as you know this entire colony better than any of us and can help advise along aside Ripley, especially as you like her know what these things are capable of" Gorman answered as he went to make a report before moving out.

"Don't worry mam we'll protect you" Alexander promised as he passed with the others headed to the cargo bay. "After all that is why we are here" he added with a smile he directed only to her.

"It's Kara not mam" she shot back instantly not liking been called mam.

Kara locked her eyes on the dark haired marine as he looked at her and strangely found herself smiling back, she didn't know why she was returning his smile as she had only just met him but something about him made her feel she could trust him. She watched as he paused and turned and faced her.

"The name is Alexander, pleased to meet you Kara" Alexander replied with another smile. He then turned and exited the room with Carl and the other marines and wondered just what they would in the processing plant.

Burke left the marines to their planning happy to know they were heading to the nest, as he found an office to sit in and wait he wondered what he would need to do to get the two live specimens home past quarantine to the bio labs. It would be no easy task that was for sure, a lot of risk involved as anyone caught trying to get anything past quarantine would end up in prison especially something as dangerous as these creatures. Still he was certain with careful planning he could pull it off, in his rush to plan his next few moves he forgot about wiping the colony logs of his transmission to the colony ordering them to check out the derelict ship as he had planned to do once he arrived.

Ripley rubbed her forehead uneasy about heading for the processing plant but at least Gorman wasn't sending his men in a blind rush and had listened to her advice alongside that of Apone's, the extra light from the mobile lighting platforms the colony used to light dark passageways would help a lot in the nest if it was there.

"Don't worry Ripley we'll take it slowly in there" Hick's assured her gaining her attention to find him watching her with clear concern. "If it is the nest I assure you none of will be taking things lightly, we all listened to your briefing we know the dangers we might face" he added.

"I hope so Hicks I really do, but one thing to take into account I've only faced one of these things, if this is the nest then there could be a dozen inside I suggest talking to Kara and Tessaa about their encounters with more than one" Ripley advised him and Apone who was still close by.

"Good advice, if you two wouldn't mind?" Apone agreed and turning to the two women who glanced at each other before complying after Apone called the rest of his people over except for those who had headed for the cargo bay.

+AMTH+

(APC)

Ripley sat in the armoured APC as it headed to the processing plant, yet even though she should have felt safe she felt completely exposed because if she was right they were heading straight for the aliens nest. She had only ever encountered one of these things the idea of going up against more than one terrified her but she kept a tight rein on her emotions. Amanda had managed to survive against multiple aliens and she vowed she would do the same, as she could do no less than her daughter in combating these nightmares. The APC felt cramped with the marines, the survivors and the portable lights all crammed inside, but hopefully it would be worth it to ensure they were not ambushed inside the nest.

"This is not a good idea" Carl muttered.

"Probably not Carl but I have to admit there is a slim chance some of the others could still be alive" Kara replied beside him. "If they are we have to help them even if it is just to put them out of their misery" she added darkly.

"Ok people I want this deployment to go smoothly and calmly, if as suspected this is the nest for these creatures it will more than likely be dangerous once you are in" Gorman stated through the comms they all wore. "Keep sight of each other and do not get separated, those with trackers keep your eyes peeled for movement but remember allow the lights to be set up before the entire unit enter and Jackson and Marks remember you hold position at the entrance point just in case things turn sour and we need to make a fast exit" he ordered. "We cannot allow ourselves to be cut off from our exit point under any circumstances" he stated.

"Coming up on the Atmospheric processing plant sir" Alexander said as he pulled the APC up to the doors which quickly opened once it detected the signal the APC was sending to its control port. "Ok sir we are in the plant structure, I am going to park us near the stair way leading down unless you want me to take it down the ramp to level 3?" he inquired.

"No Marks we hold here, I don't want to risk the APC been damaged thus making a withdraw even harder" Gorman shot back.

"Roger that sir, powering down" Alexander replied as he began to shut the APC down into standby mode just in case a fast getaway was needed.

"Ok people gear up and be ready to go in two, we keep in radio contact at all times" Apone ordered as he grabbed his pulse rifle and moved to open the door.


	7. Chapter 7

+AMTH+

The marines quickly disembarked and began to head down the stairs; on two stretchers carried by two marines each was the portable lights. It was slow going due to carrying the lights but none of them were in a rush to get into the nest, Apone led the way down with Drake with Hicks and Hudson bringing up the rear. Back in the APC Ripley, Kara and Tessa stood behind Gorman whilst Burke and Carl stood of to the side whilst Newt remained in her chair playing with her doll. She watched the screen that showed the squads progress as they finally reached level 3 and made their way to towards the area where the colonists PDT'S were pinpointed. Suddenly Ripley noticed something on the map and began to get a very bad feeling in her gut, glancing at the readout she knew she had to speak.

"Gorman, just what do those pulse rifles fire?" she inquired making him turn to look at her surprise.

"50mm Explosive caseless rounds along with grenades for the launcher underneath" Gorman informed her calmly not seeing the problem or the reason for her sudden concerned look.

"Holy fuck" Carl groaned in alarm.

"You cannot allow them to fire those rifles in there Gorman nor use their grenades" Ripley told him bluntly surprising him even more.

"Why the hell not?" Gorman demanded to know.

"Because if you look where your team is you will realise they are right under the central heat exchanges" Ripley pointed out.

"So why does that matter or have any relation to the rifles?" Gorman inquired.

"Because if they end up firing and hitting something vital they could rupture the cooling system" Ripley stated wanting to scream at the man's denseness even as Burke's eyes suddenly opened wide.

"Oh god she's right" Burke murmured horrified he had not seen the obvious problem.

"So, so what?" Gorman demanded wishing they would just get to the damn point already instead of beating around the bush.

"So she is talking about the fusion containment shutting down and causing a thermonuclear explosion which will kill us all and destroy the entire colony" Burke stated causing Gorman to lean back in his seat with wide eyes and a horrified and uneasy expression on his face.

"Jesus Christ" Gorman finally said before turning back to the monitors. "Apone do you copy, come in right now" he ordered into his mic.

Apone quickly signalled the team to come to a halt by clicking his fingers loudly, and listened as Gorman's voice came through their mics again.

"Listen to me we cannot have any firing in there, I want all rifles slung and under no circumstances are you to use any grenades is that understood" Gorman ordered causing wide eyed expressions on many of the marines faces.

"Is he fucking crazy" Hudson cursed loudly.

"Yeah what does he expect us to use harsh fucking language" Frost inquired bitterly.

"Fuck harsh language man if we dump our rifles all we have left is our flame units and some small arms weapons and that aint going to do shit against these things" Wierzbowski spat as he hefted his pulse rifle.

"Listen to me you stupid fucks you are currently under the central heating vents, if you open fire in there you may rupture the vents causing the cooling system to leak and thus causing the fusion containment to shut down causing a thermonuclear explosion that will kill us all" Gorman explained harshly. "Do you understand me people?" he asked.

"Are you fucking kidding me" Frost said in alarm.

"No I am not joking people now I want magazines collected from everyone sergeant is that clear?" Gorman shot back.

"Well you heard the man people now pull them out and hand them over now" Apone ordered understanding the problem but not liking going into such a dangerous situation with limited firepower.

Slowly one by one the marines gave up their magazines even if some still had annoyed expressions on their faces as they did so, one Apone had collected the magazines from Drake and Vasquez he turned and moved towards Frost with his hands full of magazines. Vasquez slowly reached into her combat jacket and removed two spare clips and slipped one to Drake who quickly grinned.

"Right on Vaz" Drake muttered quietly.

"Frost open that bag and hold these will you" Apone said and the tall marine quickly nodded and opened the bag he wore around his neck.

"Thanks a lot Sarge now I feel all special" Frost said with a grin as most of the marines pulled their flame units around to replace their now empty pulse rifles which they slung to their backs. Hicks however pulled an old antique shotgun from his back and examined hit.

"I like to keep this handy for close encounters" Hicks said grinning at Wierzbowski who grinned right back as he pulled two pistols from his belt.

"Yeah I hear that man" Wierzbowski agreed as they began moving again.

Apone took note that whilst most carried flame units now there were a few who had some shotguns like Hick's or some pistols, he just hoped it would be enough for what they were about to face.

"Sir we are about to enter the nest, lights will be sent in first then we follow" Apone reported as he looked into the darkness and saw nothing.

"Roger that Sergeant, exercise extreme caution we have no idea what is in there" Gorman reminded him becoming uneasy as they neared their target.

Apone took a breath and then gave the signal and Drake and Vasquez quickly took up positions near the door so their smartguns aimed inside, then Crowe, Evans, Alexander and Frost moved inside pushing the portable lights inside.

"Hey what is this stuff on the walls Ripley?" Hudson inquired as he glanced at their surroundings and noted the sticky alien like substance that coated the walls.

"I don't know Hudson but it bears a striking semblance to the aliens skin" Ripley responded through the comm. "It looks like some kind of bio matter they must secrete" she mused.

"Bishop, are you reading this?" Apone inquired knowing the android was most likely watching the vid feedback in command.

"I am, I suggest you do not touch the walls if possible just in case it has the same properties as the Xenomorth" Bishop advised through the comm.

"You heard him stay tight and away from the walls" Apone ordered as suddenly the portable lights activated and the entire nest was lit up. "Ok people let's move in slowly Marks Jackson hold this exit do not allow us to be cut off" he added as he moved in with the others following.

Gorman and the others gasped as they got their first glimpse of the nest, colonists were strung up all over the place. The same bio matter they'd seen on the outside seemed to keep them stuck to the wall; most of the colonists were clearly dead as they had holes in their chest from where the chest busters had erupted out of them.

"Good god" Gorman gasped horrified as he had never seen anything like this in his life nor heard of anything like it either.

Tessa, Kara, Carl and Ripley had all turned white as they stared at the cocooned colonists and it was only then that Ripley remembered Newt to was in the APC and quickly looked down to find the young girl standing beside her trying to gaze at the screen.

"Newt, go to the front, you do not need to see this" Ripley said encouragingly gaining the young girl's attention. "Go, please this is not something you need to watch" she added finally the girl just nodded and walked away to the front of APC and sat down.

"She's already seen worse Ripley" Kara admitted gaining her attention. "She may look like a little girl but after what she's been through and seen she isn't" she said sourly.

"Maybe but that doesn't mean she needs to see more" Ripley countered before turning back to the monitor.

"Is there any movement on the trackers Apone?" Gorman inquired.

"Nothing sir, and we still cannot see much due to the bio matter on the wall, it all looks the same" Apone admitted as he kept a close eye on his surroundings.

"Sarge, we've got a live one here" Crowe's startled voice gained everyone's attention.

They watched as the marines descended on Crowe's position as she tried to help a woman who was gasping and moaning and begging for help, she was stuck to the wall close to the ground hence easily reachable.

"Shit, we've got to get her out of here" Ripley heard Wierzbowski hiss even as she turned to Kara. "Do you know who she is?" she inquired

"Mary Larson, communications" Kara muttered in response white faced and grim as were Carl and Tessa.

"Oh shit, convulsions" Crowe's shout regained all their attentions.

On the screen they watched as the woman began to scream and buck even though she could not break the bio matter she was encased in, suddenly her chest exploded in a shower of blood. Apone and the marines backed away and raised their weapons and even as the chest buster erupted Apone unleashed a torrent of flame burning it to a crisp. Suddenly the tracking sensors blared in alarm startling everybody; Gorman frowned and turned his attention to the side monitor that showed a small tracking map.

"We've got movement Sarge" Hudson's voice rang clearly uneasy.

"Where Hudson?" Apone demanded to know as he turned from the burning corpse to focus on Hudson.

"I can't fully lock in on it Sir, it's a really weird signal" Hudson responded glancing back and forth before suddenly spinning around as one of the portable lights went out as something struck it. "Shit" he spat.

"Tighten up people go to infrared, Hudson talk to me god damn it" Apone demanded again.

"There's multiple signals in front and behind us sir" Hudson answered.

"Where man I don't shit up here" Frost called out.

"He's right there's nothing back here Hudson" Hicks said his eyes focused and wary.

"God damn it guys I'm telling you there is something moving and it ain't us" Hudson insisted.

Suddenly the other portable light went on as it was shattered dousing the marine into almost pitch black, the bleeping from the trackers got louder as and the marines grew tenser.

"Pull them out of there now Gorman" Ripley insisted. "Pull them out of there now before it's too late"

"Shut up Ripley and let me think" Gorman shouted cutting her off which was right when Dietrich let out a shout of alarm as something grabbed her from behind and hefted her upwards.

In response to been grabbed she accidently activated her flamer just as Frost ran to help her setting him on fire, Frost screamed loudly as he ran wildly around dropping the ammo bag before falling over the railings to his death. That was the moment all hell broke loose as the aliens seemed to explode out of the darkness and attack, Drake and Vasquez immediately opened fire with their smartguns which easily tracked the targets due to the autofinder attached to it. An explosion ripped through the area as the ammo bag Frost had been carrying and dropped in the melee exploded sending Hicks and Wierzbowski flying even as Cameron was ripped apart by it, a scream ripped through the system and the life signs for Evans quickly flat lined. The next to fall was Crowe who whilst trying to retreat was jumped by one of the aliens, they tumbled over each other but Crowe was no match for the alien and was quickly carried away before anyone could react.

"God damn it who the hell is firing in there?" Gorman demanded for the fifth time having been trying to establish contact with Apone while chaos broke. "Apone, listen to me I want you to fall back using the incinerators squad by squad to you copy" he ordered.

"Say again sir" Apone responded clearly having trouble hearing his superior.

"I said I want you to fall back using the incinerators squad by squad" Gorman repeated but a closer look at him revealed the man was in shock by how fast the situation had escaped his control.

Apone continued to try and regain some kind of order even as Hicks helped a clearly injured Wierzbowski towards Jackson and Alexander who as ordered remained near the exit, Hudson was covering him. Suddenly movement got his attention and he turned to look up but far too late to defend himself as an alien dropped right on him, before he could try and do anything he felt a sudden sharp sting and his entire body froze up. He could only lay there as he was dragged away, all he wanted was to pull his pistol and shoot himself because he knew what awaited him thanks to Ripley's report but he could not do anything not even scream.

"Where's the Sarge?" Alexander shouted over the comm as Gorman froze up completely.

"Get them the hell out of there Gorman now" Ripley screamed at him.

"Fall back, fall back now" Hicks ordered as he unloaded his shotgun even as Jackson told hold of the injured Wierzbowski.

"They're going to fall back" Gorman stuttered unable to think or focus on what to do.

"We're cut off damn you" Ripley growled before spinning away and running for the wheel of the APC, before sitting down she strapped Newt in knowing what she planned was going to be a bumpy ride.

It took her a few seconds to figure out how to power up the APC and quickly set about doing it, once it was powered she put her foot to the pedal and drove straight for the ramp intent on getting to level 3 as fast as possible.

"Ripley, what the hell are you doing?" Gorman demanded as he finally snapped out of his shock.

Kara, Tessa and Carl had already managed to sit down whilst Burke followed Gorman as best he could, Gorman tried to stop Ripley causing the APC to skim the wall twice as it passed level 2 and headed straight for level 3. A barricade soon appeared and Ripley knew it was the only way through to the team if any had survived, putting her foot down the sent the APC crashing into the barricade smashing it apart. Quickly grabbing her headset she tried to contact the team.

"Hicks, can you hear me the APC is at level 3" she called out.

"Marines we are leaving" she heard Hicks scream through the comm.

"Burke get the door, make sure you have some weapons just in case" Ripley ordered as Gorman knowing there was nothing he could do to Ripley right now moved to assist.

Hicks slowly made his to the APC with Hudson and Shepard hot on his heels, Alexander and Jackson carried the injured Wierzbowski between them and bringing up rear was Vasquez and Drake still laying down covering fire with their smartguns.

"Shit it's blocked we gotta go around" Hudson groaned as and quickly moved to follow wanting to get out of this nightmare as quickly as possible.

"Drake we are leaving move it" Hicks shouted as Drake stopped and gunned down multiple aliens as they closed in on him until his smartgun finally ran dry.

"Shit" Drake cursed as he quickly unhooked his weapon and let it drop to the floor and pulled the flamer he had slung around his shoulder, he then began to back away again laying down a curtain of fire.

Hicks reached the APC first and took up position near the door and allowed Alexander and Jackson to get Wierzbowski on-board, thankful that Gorman and Burke were near the door to help both armed although clearly Burke was out of his element with the way he held the gun. Hudson quickly boarded just as Vasquez called out a warning to Drake causing them to glance back to see an alien spring up behind Drake. Drake spun even as Vasquez let out a burst of fire from her smartgun which still had ammo, whilst her weapons fire killed the alien it had the unfortunate side effect of causing its blood to spray all over Drake. Drake screamed out as he fell, his finger compulsively pulling the trigger of his flamer. Hicks just barely managed to pull Vasquez inside the APC to avoid the flame, Vasquez struggled in his grip but he shoved her against the door.

"He's gone Vaz it's over" he shouted at her as he moved to get the door. Just as he began to close it an alien launched itself at the door squeezing inside and lowering its jaws. "Secure the goddamn door now" he ordered.

Hudson grabbed Hicks's fallen shotgun and stuck it inside the creatures mouth and fired blowing a hole right through its mouth but also causing some its blood to hit his shoulder, the alien died quickly allowing Hicks to slam the door closed with help from Vasquez and Alexander.

"Ripley, go go go" Hicks shouted up front.

Ripley did not need any more encouragement and quickly put the APC into reverse and began to back away, once pointed in the right direction she again flawed it and headed back up to level 1 and the exit. As she drove an alien dropped onto the APC and smashed its tail into the window, she slammed on the brakes and sent it flying forwards however as she did so a bunch of ammo boxes broke loose from the overhead and nailed Gorman on the back of the head knocking him cold. Seeing the alien getting back to its feet Ripley drove forward and crushed it underneath the powerful wheels causing a horrible cry to erupt from it before it died.

+AMTH+

Soon the APC smashed through the doors of the processing plant and onto the hard surface, Ripley get going even though she could a loud scraping noise coming from under the APC. Soon Hicks joined her up front and slowly reached out and took a hold of her hands and began to try and ease up her hold on the wheel, slowly very slowly Ripley allowed Hicks to slow them down.

"You've blown the transaxle Ripley we're just grinding metal now" Hicks informed her. "Now ease it down and pull over" he told her and Ripley complied.

Leaning back in her seat for a few seconds before getting up to check on Newt, she found the little girl missing for a few seconds before she heard a cough making her look to the side to find her sitting in the small space between the driver's seat and the first backseat. She kneeled down to check on her; the small girl coughed again but looked physically fine.

"You okay Newt?" she inquired and was sorely tempted to smile as the little girl looked at her then raised a thumb at her indicating she was fine.

Nodding her head she went into the back of the APC to find Shepard working on fixing up the injured and unconscious Wierzbowski, having been caught in the explosion of the ammo pack Frost had been carrying she was not surprised to see the man was in bad shape. Hudson was sat in one of the seats holding his arm which was clearly burned; Vasquez was leaning against the APC hull in clear anger. Alexander and Jackson sat with their heads in their hands clearly distressed, the colony survivors all had pale faces which was no surprise given the fact their rescue had quickly turned into another nightmare. Burke was trying to tend to Hudson but the private kicked the man away with a hard glare, Ripley couldn't blame Hudson as far as she was concerned this was all the company's fault and Burke represented the company.

"How is he?" Ripley asked as she knelt next to Shepard.

"He'll live but he took most of the explosion in the side" Shepard answered darkly. "He won't be up and about for a long while" he added.

"He's luckier than most" Tessa stated as she watched the marines try and come to grips with what had just happened to them.

"True enough, what happened to Gorman?" Ripley inquired as she noted Hicks checking the unconscious body of Gorman.

"Looks like he's suffering from a concussion after the ammo boxes fell on him" Hicks said with a sigh.

"He's fucking dead, wake up pendejo I'm going to kill you" Vasquez snarled as she grabbed a fistful of Gorman's shirt and tried to pull him up so she could slug him but Hicks quickly intercepted her hand.

"Back off Vasquez right now" Hicks ordered staring at his fellow marine heatedly and slowly Ripley and the others watched as Vasquez backed down. "He's not going to wake up anytime soon" he said with a shake of his head.

"Hey guys look the signs for the Sarge and Dietrich aren't flat lined they're real low but they ain't dead" Hudson suddenly said into the intervening silence drawing their attention to the monitors.

"Then we have to go back in and get them" Vasquez said heatedly.

"Like hell, I ain't going back in there" Hudson immediately shot back and backing away from the suddenly furious Vasquez.

"We do not leave our people behind Hudson you know that" Vasquez spat.

"We can't get to them Vasquez and you damn well know it" Hudson argued back. "Those fuckers will be on us in seconds, we can't see them and in case you didn't notice we lost yours and Drakes smartgun in the retreat and they were the only real effective weapon against them" he snapped.

"He's right Vas we can't help them now" Alexander grunted finally raising his head from his hands so they could see the clear anger in his face. "We are in no shape to mount any kind of rescue, Wierzbowski is injured and Gorman is unconscious and the rest of us including yourself is in shock" he stated. "We go in we end up just as dead, then this has all been for nothing" he spat.

"He is right we can't help them because right now they are just been cocooned just like the colonists you saw" Ripley put in.

"You stirred up the nest which means they will be on their guard now and you will not get anywhere near them, it would be like trying to enter a bee hive" Kara told them blankly as she gazed at Alexander with some concern showing in her eyes.

"So what now?" Carl inquired having quickly lost his attitude in the wake of what he had just seen.

"Let's just bug out and call it even" Hudson said quickly. "What the hell are we even talking for, we should get the fuck out of here" he spat.

"We have four canisters of CN-20 I say we roll them in and gas the entire nest" Vasquez suggested having regained her calm.

"We have no idea if that will even affect them, all we may do is cause them to move from the nest straight to wherever we are" Shepard countered with a shake of his head.

"It's worth a shot at least" Vasquez insisted.

"The only sure way is to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit, that is the only way you will ensure you get them all and save Apone and Dietrich from a painfully slow death" Ripley's calm statement quickly brought the entire APC into silence as they all turned to stare at her.

"You can't do that Ripley, this is a multibillion dollar installation" Burke protested immediately.

"Then they can fucking bill me Burke just like they tried to bill me for destroying the Nostromo" Ripley countered hotly glaring at the company rep.

"You cannot exterminate what seems to me to be a far more intelligent species that first described" Burke shot back knowing if he wanted to get a specimen and make a lot of money he could not afford to allow them to carry out Ripley's insane plan.

"Wrong on all counts" Ripley argued.

"Yeah watch us" Vasquez growled liking Ripley's suggestion as it clearly would ensure to get the majority of the creatures that had just killed half her unit and more importantly her friend Drake.

"Listen to me this species may be far more important to study than just simply exterminating them" Burke put in. "They could open up whole new worlds of scientific exploration" he exclaimed.

"You son of a bitch" Ripley snarled as she launched herself at the company rep as he showed his true colours and went back on his word just as she had thought he would. Hicks caught her around the waist and with a little help from Tessa managed to push her back. "You promised me if we found out the aliens were behind the colony going dark we would wipe them out" she spat.

"And you believed the little corporate weasel, ha don't make me laugh" Carl spat as he watched the company rep spit on the deaths of his friends and the rest of the colony.

"Fucking bastard, our friends are dead, our families are dead and all you care about is what these things might be worth to you" Kara snarled.

"I didn't say that, I am talking about scientific advancement" Burke countered in defence.

"Bullshit" Ripley spat. "I should have known, either way it doesn't matter what you say Burke this operation is under military rule hence it is down to them to pick a course of action and whilst Gorman maybe out I do believe Corporal Hicks has authority as next in the chain of command" she added heatedly. "Am I right Corporal?" she inquired turning to the surprised Hicks.

"Yeah you're right" Hicks finally responded after a few seconds.

"Are you kidding, he can't make a call like that Ripley he's just a damn grunt" Burke protested before suddenly realising the insulting nature of his statement and how it might make Hicks respond. "No offence intended" he said.

Hicks stared at the company rep for a few seconds making him start to fidget a little before Hicks looked away. "None taken, Ferro you copy?" he said into his mic.

"I'm here Hicks but I am still having trouble with what I just heard, are they really gone?" Ferro inquired.

"Yeah this mission is over, I need you to come get us as the APC is fucked we can pick Bishop up last to give him time to wrap up things in command" Hicks responded. "Bishop pack it up and meet us at the west end entranceway" he ordered.

"Roger that Corporal" Bishop responded through the comm.

"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit" Hicks told them calmly. "It's the only way we can deal with these things" he stated doing his best not to look at Ripley because if he did he knew he would end up laughing due to the startled look Burke now wore.

"Fuckin A" Hudson swore in agreement.

"Ok marines we need two stretchers for Gorman and Wierzbowski, make sure you are all armed and this goes for you four too" Hicks ordered turning to the others including the colonists and Ripley.

"You can't do this Corporal" Burke protested one last time.

"Yes I can as Ripley stated I am next in the chain of command and the call is mine backed by the authority of the Colonial Marine Core command" Hicks shot back. "Now move it people" he ordered as he hefted his pulse rifle and slipped a new clip into it from the ammo boxes and opened the door to the APC and jumped out.

Within the next few minutes the others had joined him and begun improvising some stretchers, Burke was give no option but to help.

+AMTH+

(Hadley's Hope)

Ferro hit the switches that began the powering up sequence of the Dropship, it would take a few minutes but they had time at least she hoped they did. Having listened to the entire missing through the comm she was still somewhat in shock at what had transpired in the nest, half the platoon had been ripped to pieces by the aliens including Apone. It was a damn nightmare right out of the worst case seniors she could think of, in her book the minute they were ordered to drop their mags for their pulse rifles the mission was doomed. Oh she knew the reason behind the order was solid, they couldn't risk causing the atmospheric plan going critical or they'd all end up dead.

"Move your arse Spunkmeyer we're rolling" she snapped into her mic.

"Yeah yeah give me a break Ferro just delivering the last of Bishop's supplies then I'll be right with you" Spunkmeyer responded with a sigh.

Ferro shook her head knowing delivering the supplies Bishop had requested was no pointless as they would be leaving shortly, still she couldn't fault Spunkmeyer for doing his job. A few minutes later the dropship was ready for take-off; glancing back she heard the ramp closing up which meant Spunkmeyer was on board.

"Ok Ferro ramp closed but there is something very strange here" Spunkmeyer told her as he looked at his hand which was no encased in some kind of slime.

"Get up here Spunkmeyer, I don't care what has you all worried" Ferro ordered.

Spunkmeyer frowned somewhat but moved to comply before sensed movement from his side and looked up just in time to see a black monstrosity drop from the ceiling, horrified Spunkmeyer went for his service pistol but the thing moved faster than he could and in seconds the creatures second set of teeth ripped into his head. Unable to even cry out Spunkmeyer dropped his pistol and dropped to the ground as his blood pooled around him, his last image was the teeth coming for him again. The alien pulled away from where it had just killed its latest victim before moving to the cockpit door, it opened once it was close enough the alien heard its prey speak and then glance in its direction.

"About damn time Spunkmeyer, what the hell took you so long?" Ferro demanded to know as she turned before paling as she saw the snarling alien creature.

Turning she moved to grab her pistol but the alien was on her in seconds and she screamed as its teeth ripped into her throat, blood spurted everywhere as she lost control of her limbs and in turn the dropship. The dropship tilted badly not that Ferro really felt it as the alien had already torn open her throat, she gurgled once before expiring leaving the alien to search for more prey before it was killed as the dropship crashed in the APC and exploded sending huge chucks careening into Atmospheric processing plant.

+AMTH+

(APC, minutes before)

Hicks stood next to Ripley and Newt who was clinging to her legs, behind them Hudson and Shepard carried Wierzbowski and next to them Gorman was carried by Burke and Carl not that either had been happy at been volunteered for the duty. However they preferred to have actual marines standing watch whilst they waited for the dropship to arrive, Vasquez stood on the left flank and Alexander stood to the right both armed and ready should they be attacked. Tessa and Kara were next to Alexander also armed with the smaller submachine gun variant of the pulse rifle, soon the dropship appeared and their spirits rose thinking that soon they would be of this rock and the nightmare would be over. Sadly it was not to be as the dropship quickly banked wildly before nose diving right at them, horrified the group scattered as best they could. Seconds later the dropship smashed into the APC and exploded heavily damaging the APC even more, Hicks slowly removed himself from where he had thrown himself over Ripley and Newt to cover them and looked at the wreckage in horror.

"Oh god, what the fuck happened?" Hudson spat as he sat up.

"Ferro wouldn't have lost control unless she was badly injured or dead" Alexander protested as he moved of Kara who he had moved to cover and helped her sit up. She smiled gratefully at him but it quickly faded, she glanced at Tessa who slowly sat up and rubbed her shoulders clearly in pain from where she had thrown herself.

"You think one of those things got on board?" Shepard inquired.

"More than likely which means Ferro and Spunkmeyer are dead" Hicks groaned as he rubbed his forehead.

"Well that's just great man" Hudson said somewhat hysterically. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now man?" he demanded to know as he climbed to his feet.

"Maybe we can build a fire and sing some songs" Burke suggested sarcastically.

"Fuck you man" Hudson spat back before settling as Tessa got up and moved over to his side clearly concerned by his behaviour.

"Calm it down Hudson" Hicks ordered. "Ok we need to salvage whatever we can from the APC and get out of here" he added.

"You heard the man get to it" Vasquez snapped and quickly the others quickly began to grab what they could from the ruined APC.

Ripley stared out over the landscape trying not to think about her first visit to this planet, not that her second visit was looking to be any better considering the last few hours. She glanced down to the little girl clutching her leg, she sighed wondering just how much this set back would affect her.

"Guess we're not going home are we?" Newt inquired.

"I'm sorry Newt" was all Ripley could say hoping it was enough.

"It's okay, it isn't your fault" Newt responded feeling only slightly disappointed by this turn of events.

She had already witnessed the deaths of her Mother, Father and Brother and had seen countless other colonists dragged away by the aliens. She had seen real horror up close and personally, whilst she had not been totally alone she still felt isolated and cut off from the others who had survived with her. However there was something different about Ripley, a sense of protective concern she had not felt since her Mother had died.

"We should get back now as they mostly come at night mostly" she finally told them.

"We will be going in just a few seconds once we've got all we can salvage" Ripley assured her.

"Bishop we're coming back on foot, the dropship is gone along with Ferro and Spunkmeyer" Hicks said into his mic as they finished gather what stuff they could and began to head back. "Get medical secured, we have two injured including Gorman" he ordered.

"Roger that Corporal, I'll be waiting" Bishop responded after a few seconds processing the new information.

Once they had recovered everything they could salvage from the now wrecked APC they began the trek back to the main colony and the command centre, it was a slow journey due to the stretchers and boxes they now carried.

+AMTH+


End file.
